A Christmas Story: Catastrophe in 24 Acts
by Treyen
Summary: With only a few days to Christmas the Nations should be busy preparing for the party. Only, no one is really feeling like it, and that kinda-crucially-important little Finn is nowhere to be found. A Hetalia advent calender.
1. 1st December

**1/24**

_Beep~_

_Beep~_

_Beep~_

_Click._

"Terve! You have reached the personification of the Republic of Finland or, well, my recorded voice since I'm busy or away and can't pick up. Everything you say from here on can and will be used against you~! Wait, no, Estonia told me not to use that message any more… So, please call again later or leave a message after the beep and I'll get back to you. … Perkele, that's boring. Estonia, can I _please _use my favourite message again? I already apologised! Oh, and in case you're Russia, I still won't beco−"

_Beep._

America threw his phone to the wall. No use repeating the same message for the twenty-first time. He hugged his knees and curled up between the sofa cushions, grumbling under his breath. Why couldn't the damn guy just pick up? It was only four days to Christmas and Finland needed an all-important update on what America would like for his present! He had the full list ready and prepared if the guy would. Just. Pick. UP!

America sighed in frustration and, from the husky sound coming up his throat, figured he needed a drink. He flung his feet to the floor and headed into the kitchen, scooped a can of Coke from the fridge and continued his – he was _not_ brooding, just slouching heroically – on a kitchen chair this time. America sighed again. How could it be that it was almost Christmas and he was feeling this bady under the weather? It was the best time of the year! He should be pouncing around whichever town he chose to spend the holidays in, cause his boss and the secret service guys a headache doing that, sing carols and get hyped together with the kids like a hundred times before but here he was, drinking Coke alone in his house and his favourite nation around Christmas time refused to answer his damn phone. Yes, Finland was America's favourite Christmas time nation... at least when the presents came...

The sudden sound of his phone sounded awfully loud in the silent house, and America choked on his drink. He scrambled to the sink and hacked the fizzy stuff out of his lungs (a horrible waste of good Coke, but better in the sink than in his lap or on the tiled floor – nevermind that, he was supposed to be answering the phone!)

_Finland? _America thought, coughing a few more times for good measure as he ran back into the living room. It suddenly crossed his mind that throwing the phone away in a fit might not have been his brightest idea of the day. _About time he calls back, dammit..._

He made a final dash for the mobile phone, praying _The Imperial March_ would ring a couple of seconds more. Without bothering to actually check whether the caller was Finland or not; he decided to give the Nordic a piece of his mind, fumbled for the crucial button and found it at the last possible second, and finally lifted the phone to his ear. He instantly regretted it.

_"Aaa! Americaa-aa!" _The wail carried through the phoneline, into his ear, broke his eardrum, proceeded to make good work of his brain and finally made his _other_ eardrum crack worryingly on its way out to make a valiant effort against the closest wall. America grimaced and held the phone at an arm's reach. When the screeching paused a little; he dared to bring the device near again.

"Yo Korea," he greeted. "What's up man? You broke my eardrum just now y'know."

The Asian sounded on the verge of tears. _"Sorry, I'm just so happy someone answers to me."_

"So who doesn't?" America asked. He didn't bother getting up from the floor after his mad dash for the phone, just flopped down on the spot, leaned on his elbows and idly began to investigate a fluffy ball of dust. _Guess I should've done some cleaning?_

_"Brother!" _Korea exclaimed, sounding very hurt. _"I've called him countless times today! You think he's okay? Maybe he's stressed with too much work or then his boss is being a meanie or then–"_

"Has it occurred to you maybe he doesn't want to answer?" America grinned teasingly. He was in a slightly better mood already, knowing he wasn't the only one who couldn't reach the person he wanted. In other words, Korea was now his soul mate!

_"Brother wouldn't do that to me."_

"Okay. Then maybe he's in the bathroom?"

_"For three hours?"_

"Diarrhea?"

_"Oh... You mean he's sick?" _Korea sounded utterly terrified.

"Or then some aliens kidnapped him."

_"What?"_

"Oh, come on, China can take care of himself," America calmed the other down. For some reason neither of them gave a thought to China possibly not hearing his phone or some other logical reason. "But say, is China not answering your calls the only reason you had to call me?"

_"No. Japan's not answering me either," _Korea pouted at the other end. _"Or Finland. I wanna tell him what I want for prese–"_

"Hey me too!" America perked up, instantly throwing the idea of cleaning right out the window. "He won't answer to me either. I actually thought you were him calling back to me after hearing my messages."

_"Oh, then it's not just that he doesn't think I've been a good boy." _Korea sounded relieved.

"Sure you've been good this year," America assured. "But I really wonder where Finland_ is_. Usually he always picks up at this time of the year and his other cell phone is not connecting at all."

_"You think he's not kidnapped by aliens?"_

"I don't get why they'd be interested."

_"They want Christmas presents too?"_

"Oh, fuck, of course," America nodded knowingly. He was starting to get worried. "But hey, I know who we can ask. I'll call you back okay?"

America cut Korea off without waiting for an answer and lowered his phone to see the screen. He quickly browsed his contacts and made a new call. It took a moment for the other to pick up.

_"H'lo?"_

"Yoo~ Sweden!" America rolled onto his back. "Everything alright at your place?"

_"…Wha?" _Sweden sounded uncertain how he should answer.

"I uhh, mean… is Finland ok and all?"

The Nordic was silent for a moment. _"We dun' live t'gether y'know."_

"You don't? Eh, that's not the point…"America shook his head to put this sudden information out of the way of his job. "So have you seen him lately?"

_"Wha's this abou'?"_

"Nothing, nothing, I've just been trying to call him and well… he's not picking up."

_"R'ly?"_

"Since Friday."

Silence was Sweden's only reply for a long while, and America frowned.

"Sweden?"

_"Are ya shur?"_

"Yeah, Korea called him too and− Sweden?" America's frown deepened at the beeping sound that told him Sweden had cut him off. _Him,_ the Great United States of America! _Ungrateful,_ America thought as he dialed Korea's number again to share the little info about his call with Sweden.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Papa?" Sealand asked worriedly, following Sweden to the front door. "Where are you going?"

"To Fin's," Sweden grunted back. He finished putting his boots on, stood up and turned to give the micronation a quick hug. "I'll be back."

"Mama's?" Sealand wondered, hugging back. "Why?" Sweden usually didn't bother his neighbour just before Christmas because the other had so much work to do. "Is something wrong?"

"Thass wha' I wanna find out," Sweden answered, patting through is pockets for his phone and the spare key Finland had entrusted to him.

Sealand looked on in baffled silence as Sweden hurried out the door and slammed it shut. _Now Papa's being weird again, _he frowned and turned around to go resume his play. Knight Bamse and his alien corps had just been about to conquer Jerkenglandia when Papa started acting up. _But surely Mama will cure him._

Sweden broke into a run as he passed through the front garden. Finland _always _answered the phone before Christmas. That was just the beginning of the extent he was willing to go to make the party a happy one for all, never mind religion or politics. There was just no way Finland wouldn't pick up. And since Friday? That was three days ago by now. Once he was in the car and steadily making his way to the airport Sweden picked up his own phone again and pressed Finland's speed dial. He listened to the ringback tone anxiously, waiting for someone to pick up.

_Beep~_

_Beep~_

_Beep~_

_Click._

"Terve! You have reached the personification of the Republic of Finland or, well, my recorded voice–"

* * *

A/N: Good Christmas time for everyone: we're presenting you a Hetalia Christmas calender for this year. We: Treyen (author), Fletcher (co-author) and CrescentLilly (beta-reader), all hope you'll enjoy it.

Translations from Finnish:

Terve = Hello. A greeting similar to "moi"

Perkele = A swearing word. Cannot be translated properly.

America's ringtone is The Imprerial March from Star Wars.

Rated T for language, a lots of kissing and France.

Cheru: Thank you for all the wonderful job you've done by now.


	2. 2nd December

**2/24**

Sweden bit his lip, grunting while Hanatamago was whining against his leg, begging for food and attention. He had ringed the doorbell and knocked a few times before using his key, just to be polite. There was still a chance Finland was home after all and had just been too busy to pick up his phone or hadn't heard or something – anything – else. The first thing he had seen was a fluff of white fur dashing across the wooden floor like a small barking lightning bolt, when the dog had come to greet him. From the looks of it, she was lonely. After calling for Finland loudly a couple of times with no answer, Sweden lifted the dog in his arms where she buried her muzzle in his armpit.

Finland wasn't home and now Sweden was truly worried. Finland would be the last of all nations he knew to leave his dog alone without food or water for long. Sweden glanced at his neighbour's phone only to frown even more: seventy-two new messages.

In three days? Who could that have been?

Passing the phone for now, Sweden went straight to the kitchen to give the quivering furball in his arms some appropriate nutrition. The house wasn't cold, but it seemed it was a while since it had been occupied by anything but the dog. Then again, Finland usually didn't clean before Christmas until a day or two before the Eve, because he had no time and besides he enjoyed doing it that way, so a week's worth of dust didn't prove anything. But still.

Sweden searched the cupboards for a while and filled Hanatamago's cup with fresh food, resisting the urge to pet the dog while she ate.

"Hana," Sweden talked to her quietly. "Wher's yer master?"

The dog concentrated on her dinner. The Swede's frowns had surpassed 'mafia thug' and were fast approaching 'old hag of a math teacher whose students won't shut up'. He sat on the floor beside the dog and picked up his phone again, chose a speed dial number and started waiting for an answer.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Norway was curled up in a corner of his sofa and reading a book he had set comfortably against his knees when his phone started ringing. Denmark had been babbling at him about something or another all morning, so when the other had finally gone against his natural instincts to shut up for a while, the new disturbance irritated the Norwegian greatly. Especially since his phone was currently in the study, where a certain overly loud neighbour had commandeered his computer to chat with Prussia. So not only would he have to get up to answer the thing but also willingly enter a space shared with Denmark after he'd just gotten the other off his neck.

"Oi! Norge~! Yar phone's ringing!" Denmark shouted from the other room, louder than would have been necessary.

He just wasn't going to get any reading time, was he? Norway gave an irritated huff, slammed his book shut forcefully and was just about get up and answer when the Dane spoke again.

"Oh, it's Sve, so I'll answer it, 'kay." Denmark pressed the phone against his ear without waiting for any reply from Norway. "Sverige ol' pal, whazzup!"

Norway felt his irritation peak. From the chatter that followed Denmark's exclamation he made out that Sweden was very bewildered to find Denmark answering Norway's phone. Norway marched into the room just as Denmark was explaining that there was nothing weird about him being in arm's reach of Norway's cell phone, because there was nothing weird in him being in arm's reach of _Norway_, or closer than that for that matter, and–

Norway grabbed the other by the collar to prevent him from stating any more of his so-called reasons. Denmark squeaked in surprise and shot an offended glare at the Norwegian when the phone was snatched from him.

"Sve?" Norway made sure his irritation showed in his voice and didn't let go of Denmark even though the other was gesturing for air. "Sorry abou' that... No, he's jes bein' a pain in the neck... No, generally... What?... Finland? No, I haven', why?" Norway listened to Sweden's explanation – unusually curt, even for him – glanced down to Denmark and finally loosened his grip. "Have ya heard from Fin lately?" he asked, keeping the phone further from his mouth to speak only to the Dane.

Denmark massaged his throat, frowning. "No. Sve told me to leave 'im alone 'til Christmas. Whazzup with 'im?"

"He's not at home nor answerin' his phone," Norway explained briefly, only to make Denmark's confused look worse.

"Wouldn' he jes have some super-secret Christmas things to do?" Denmark asked and glanced at the computer screen where Prussia was demanding in furious all-caps to know where he'd _dared_ to disappear.

Norway repeated the question to Sweden and listened for a while, then continued. "'Kay, I'll call Ice an' ask. Relax, Sve, this's Finland we're talkin' about. I'll call again." He didn't bother with any extra niceties, just cut the call strolled briskly out of the room, only shortly stating to Denmark that Finland had been gone for a while already. Then he was already ringing his little brother and this time he wanted to do it in peace.

Denmark turned back to the computer and to his open #nationchat window.

**[16:32:45] &aXsome** - srysry Sve just called w/ sth about Fin gone missin and we talkd about it 4 awhile

**[16:32:58] &Awesum5mtrz** - finland? whys dat

**[16:33:04] &aXsome -** whaddya mean why, hes just gone

**[16:33:11] &aXsome** - Sve's at his place now and nobodys heard of him in a while

**[16:33:14] &Awesum5mtrz -** no man srsly? o.o

**[16:33:21] &aXsome -** yeah thats what Norge said

**[16:33:23] &Awesum5mtrz -** !seen salmari

**[16:33:24] Unbot -** salmari was last seen here 3 days, 18 hours, 27 minutes ago.

**[16:33:29] &Awesum5mtrz -** well thats not too long

**[16:33:33] &aXsome -** for Fin? yes it is

**[16:33:45] &Awesum5mtrz **- so hes goofin off sumwere at this time of year?

**[16:33:49] &Awesum5mtrz - **WHAT ABOUT MAH PRESENTS

**[16:33:56] &aXsome -** just like u to be worried bout that first XD

**[16:33:57] * &Awesum5mtrz is gonna find finland and kill him if theres no presentz**

**[16:34:05] * &Awesum5mtrz slaps Boojum|working around a bit with a large trout**

**[16:34:09] &Awesum5mtrz -** go find finland

**[16:34:12] &Boojum|working -** bugger off Prussia

**[16:34:17] &Boojum|working -** and why me anyway?

**[16:34:22] &Awesum5mtrz -** ur here and im lazy xp

**[16:34:30] &Boojum|working - **that's it, I'm putting you on ignore again

**[16:34:32] &Awesum5mtrz -** lolol

**[16:34:37] * &Boojum|working is now known as &Boojum|W-O-R-K-I-N-G**

**[16:34:41] &Awesum5mtrz -** lmao dumbass brit

**[16:34:45] &Awesum5mtrz -** just quit if ur so busy

**[16:34:49] &Awesum5mtrz -** anywaiz denmark

**[16:34:56] &Awesum5mtrz -** the Awsum Me NEEDS presentz ya knoe

**[16:35:07] &Awesum5mtrz - **and ofc im worried about the lil guy 2

**[16:35:13] &Queen_of_Hearts -** why is that an afterthought?

**[16:35:16] &Queen_of_Hearts -** really, Prussia?

**[16:35:18] &aXsome -** well you aint gettin no presents if we don't find Fin first

**[16:35:26] &aXsome -** can't contact him, he aint answering his phone

**[16:35:33] &aXsome -** Nor's just callin Ice to ask if hes seen him

**[16:35:41] &Queen_of_Hearts -**- isn't he probably just busy with Christmas stuff?

**[16:35:47] &aXsome -** Queenie thats what i said

**[16:36:01] &aXsome -** but Sve thinks its not like him to go off the radar 4days n not say anything

**[16:36:05] &Awesum5mtrz -** this sucks elephant balls

**[16:36:11] &Awesum5mtrz -** whats xmas without presents, hey :(

**[16:36:20] &aXsome -** well Nor n I are going now

**[16:36:31] * &aXsome slaps everyone around a bit with a large trout**

**[16:36:39] &aXsome -** f y'all hear about him u give us a ring k?

**[16:36:41] * &aXsome has quit IRC**

Prussia huffed at the screen and logged out as well. He rushed out of his awesome room, hurdled the stuff West kept piling around with practiced ease and jumped upstairs three steps at a time. "West!" he barked, banging the door open so violently that it hit the wall.

Germany stuck out his head from the living room to frown at his brother. "Can't you enter a room without breaking the door? What is it now? If you still refuse to do the cleaning with me, I've got nothing to talk with you about right now. Beer is in the fridge like always and you'll get it yourself."

"No no no no no, West I–" Prussia tried to explain, but he was cut off.

"You don't want beer?" Germany's eyes widened.

"No! Well, _yes, _of course, but it's not that! I– or no no, just…er…" If Prussia wasn't as awesome as he was, his wobbly sentence structure would have been interpreted as "stumbling over his words" but since Prussia was indeed awesome, it was called "trying to make up a sentence someone less awesome than me can understand."

"You'll do the cleaning then?" Germany asked dryly, leaning on his mop with a face that showed he didn't actually want to hear this.

"Most definitely not! I told you cleaning is not something the Awesome Me does just because someone tells me to!" Prussia reminded him. "And you don't need to clean, West, there's no Christmas!"

Germany raised an eyebrow and stared at his brother. A short silence ensued, both brothers standing in their respective doorways, before Germany found some words. "You know, that's got to be the weirdest excuse to slip from cleaning I've heard from you."

"West," Prussia groaned and stomped over to bat Germany upside the head. He very much objected to not being taken seriously. "It's not an _excuse_,it's fucking true man. _Finland's gone_. So we'd get no presents this year and that's not a proper _Christmas_, is it?"

Germany frowned. "What do you mean 'gone'?"

"Just 's gone from his house and not answering the phone. I just heard from Denmark."

Germany grunted in thought. Prussia was still rambling on about presents, but he didn't listen. Truth to be told, he was not in a mood for cleaning any more than Prussia was. That was rare for him in general, but especially before Christmas when he usually spent hours a day cleaning the house, making 1) preparations and 2) Prussia do his part of them. He didn't know why it was, but this time swinging his mop around just felt like an ordinary weekly clean up to him, like there was no big celebration to come in a few days. They hadn't even visited the Christmas markets _once _yet. When Prussia had proclaimed there was no Christmas, he had been only slightly surprised, and only because it was his brother who usually loved Christmas time. Nothing in his mind had voiced that not having the celebration would be that bad of a thing (though it had objected to the part that claimed 'presents make the Christmas'). It was not a rare occasion anyway, it'd come next year and every year after that so why not skip just one?

Germany slumped into a nearby armchair, letting the mop land against his shoulder and rest there, forgotten. _Why doesn't it feel wrong? _he wondered in his head. _Spending Christmas has always been relaxing in its own way and it's always fun... then why doesn't it bother me? Maybe I haven't done enough work lately to deserve a holiday…?_

"Oi? West? Are you there? Calling West! We-est~?" Prussia waved a hand before his little brother's eyes to catch his attention.

"Why doesn't it feel wrong?" Germany asked aloud. Ignoring the baffled look Prussia gave him for the question, he continued. "Why is skipping Christmas not a bad thing?"

"Of course it is!" Prussia exclaimed.

"Of course it is," Germany repeated, glancing at the half washed floor. "I just don't feel like it is."

"Well yeah," Prussia scratched the back of his head and sat on the sofa. "Neither do I but… It's _Christmas_. Of course we'll celebrate it, it's just… right. There's no way we wouldn't like it, now, is there?"

Germany shook his head. He was slightly worried now. Even his _brother_ didn't feel like celebrating Christmas and that was frankly just odd. Italy had called him yesterday just to whine about loss of motivation _("Veee, Germany, and my presepe turned out awful this year and brother is in a horrible mood and–")_ Usually he was another one of those who enjoyed the party whole-heartedly every year.

_Really_, Germany leaned back and gazed up to the ceiling. _What's with this awkward atmosphere?_

"Anyway, I'm going to find that Finn, so I'm off, West. See ya!"

"What–" Germany was shaken off his thoughts again by the bang of a door. "Hang on a moment! Prussia! Whatever you do, don't– ...oh well, whatever…"

* * *

A/N: About the chat: it was pain in the ass to make it fit the . -.-' If you want to see a proper and original version of the chat, please see here: http:(double slash)community(dot)livejournal(dot)com(slash)hetalia(slash)9597097(dot)html

Thanks for the reviews!


	3. 3rd December

**3/24**

"So Ice 'asn't seen 'im either?" Sweden sighed. He was sitting on the floor in Finland's kitchen, leaning against the cupboards and absently playing with Hanatamago who currently enjoyed pulling and chewing his sleeve. Usually he wouldn't have allowed her such indulgence but now he didn't have a heart to forbid it. "I see."

_"I'm shur he's jes fine, Sve." _Norway's words were comforting, but his tone sounded bored. He didn't quite believe Finland was automatically in some kind of danger if he was AWOL for a few days, the guy was an independent nation and a hundred times old enough to take care of himself. Though the timing was indeed strange. But Norway also knew Sweden was truly worried already. _"Ya wan' me ta come there too?"_

"Mn," Sweden answered and frowned at the dog when his sleeve unraveled a bit. "I wanna find 'im. Even if he's 'kay, jes wanna know wher' he is."

_"'Kay. I'll come." _There was a short pause during which Sweden heard some kind of arguing from the other end. _"__**We'll**__ come," _Norway corrected. He sounded irritated again from which Sweden concluded Denmark must have objected to being left alone. After Sweden promised he would be there when they arrived and requested the two to pick up Sealand on their way to Finland, the call was over.

Sweden put down his phone with a quiet sigh and petted Hanatamago, who was still concentrated on unraveling his sleeve. The dog's little huffs and growls were the only sound in the house. The stoic nation was glad he had some company even when that company reminded him so glaringly about why he was here. Sweden wasn't generally a loud person, he was okay with silence and being by himself, but there was a limit.

Sweden went through a mental checklist of who else he could still call to ask about his neighbour. In addition to Norway, he had already called Finland's boss, foreign minister and Ministry of Defence (who all said Finland had free reign over his Christmas-related PR duties and usually didn't answer their calls at this time of year anyway), his own boss and foreign minister (who had no idea why he was making such a big deal of it), Estonia (who hadn't picked up) and a local pet shop owner, the last one in hopes of Finland being seen buying something for Hanatamago (no). Then he remembered that he hadn't called America back yet. Sweden opened his phone again.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Estonia brought his after-dinner coffee to what he liked to call his study and America liked to call his Evil Hacker Lair ("Seriously man, _how _many computers do you have in here?"), and checked the idle chat window automatically as he opened all the files he needed for work. You never knew when Tony or Dundee would try to hack themselves into channel admin status while they thought Estonia or some other rightful admin didn't notice, after all. Monaco and Belgium were present and chatting animatedly, while England was doing his usual of pretending to work while still keeping his chat window open to keep an eye on the gossip. Hong Kong came in and resumed his trademark lurking. Denmark and Prussia had both recently left and Estonia frowned at the conversation they, Monaco and England had had, forgetting about the work he was supposed to do. What was this about?

The Baltic rose from his chair, but changed his mind and sat back down, typing rapidly. Monaco paused her wall of text to Belgium to cheerfully admit that she didn't actually know anything more than what was on the screen already and this time Estonia took off in search of his phone. He didn't find it.

"Dammit," he mumbled, checking his bed in case he'd dropped it between the covers at some point. Not there. "Then…" he mumbled to himself while moving through the rooms. Not in the kitchen. Not in his study. Estonia sighed and stood up from checking below his favorite armchair in the living room to take the logical course of action and call himself with the house phone.

At that moment someone decided to ring his doorbell and he pushed the idea of finding that damn phone down on his to-do list for now, leaving the high priority slot for the coming guest. Dusting his trousers, Estonia walked to the door and opened it just enough to see who was there (if it was Russia, the door was better off as close to shut and barred as possible.)

"Latvia?" Estonia opened the door properly. "What a surprise."

"Hi," the younger Baltic smiled. "D-did I disturb you?"

"No, not at all." Estonia stepped aside to let the other one in. "I was just looking for my phone. Oh, could you perhaps call me?"

Latvia nodded as he peeled off his winter clothes, fished a phone from his coat pocket and hit Estonia's number. In no time, they heard the ringing of Estonia's phone somewhere far away and Estonia pounced back to the living room, following the faint sound.

"Thanks," he said as he dug the thing from the pile of magazines on his coffee table. Latvia ended the call as Estonia proceeded to clear it from his unanswered calls, frowning slightly as he took notice of who else had tried to call him. _Sweden's called? What could he want? _he thought._ Never mind. _ "Now, is this a friendly visit or did you have something specific in your mind?"

The younger nation nodded. "I t-thought… would you like to… do some cleaning with me?" When Estonia raised his brows in question, Latvia clarified. "For Christmas. I… I just don't feel like I get a-anything done by… myself so I thought we could- E-estonia?" he ended worriedly upon seeing the other frowning so deeply.

Estonia glanced in the direction of his study where his computer still silently displayed the quickly proceeding chat conversation. "Excuse me for a moment. I'll make a quick phone call."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"What do you want?" China muttered tiredly, scratching behind his ear.

"Brother." Korea grabbed his shoulders to make sure China looked at him. "We're going to Finland."

China blinked. "What?"

"Put something decent on, let's go," the younger nation pushed his way inside, shoving China in front of him to hurry him up.

"Wait a moment, young man, what's this about?" China wiggled off.

"Aliens have kidnapped Finland!" Korea told him exitedly. "Come on, we gotta go save him!"

"No, wait wait wait," China tried to argue back. "I'm _not _going. Why should I?"

"Of course we'll go! If we don't, we won't get presents this year," Korea revealed his trump card. He pointed at China dramatically. "That's right big brother! There'll be no cute plushies for you this year if we don't rescue Finland."

China raised a finger to give Korea a piece of his mind but stopped to think. For a moment he remained still, then lowered his hand and fidgeted with his fingers shyly. "There... there won't?"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

France blinked a couple of times, before a wide smile spread on his face. "Oh bonjour, Angleterre. How rare of you to come see me."

Despite the fact he was voluntarily standing at the other nation's door, England didn't look happy at all to see him. "Spill it France, what did you do to him?"

"Pardon?" France inquired elegantly.

"Are you planning on burning Christmas again or what?"

"Huh?" France asked again, this time with a considerably lower level of elegance. _Dieu_, the things this Englishman did to his manners.

"Don't try to fool me you frog. Where. Is. Finland?" England spat out his question, eyes sparkling dangerously. "I happen to like Christmas so you'd better stop meddling with it again!"

France shook his head. "Mon chéri, I have no idea what you are going on about."

"Finland's gone missing. America rang just a while ago and told me about it. If you're up to your Santa-burning hobbies again−"

"Angleterre, that was only once. And who do you trust more, me or America?"

England furrowed his thick brows and fell silent, surprised by the question. France waited politely as his sudden guest contemplated the answer, leaning on the doorframe with a small smile on his soft lips and hands resting in front of his chest.

"…You know that is a tough one…"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"I'm sure you have a very good reason for showing up so suddenly again," Austria noted dryly.

"Well this time actually," Prussia grinned. "Hell yeah I do."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

_"For the last time, I am __**not **__going __**fishing**__ with you again!"_

Iceland frowned at the phone. "No. This isn't about that."

_"Eh?"_

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Ve~?" Italy tilted his head. He had just paid his German friend a visit and now he was in the crossfire of weird stories about Finland, Prussia, the Internet, dogs, cleaning, beer and Christmas.

"So I'm going to go check on things there," Germany finished his explanation. "I won't get the cleaning done anyway. Since you're here, why don't you come along?"

The Italian considered for a while, then nodded cheerfully. "I'll call brother where we're going so he doesn't worry."

"I do doubt he does, but whatever you want, Italy..."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Whatever Russia, just drag your ass over to Finland's place!"

_"Gladly~__!" _

_Click._

"He, like, totally misunderstood that."

"I know. Let's just hope he doesn't come with too many tanks."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Norway and Denmark had been late on coming to Finland's because of an incident involving Sealand and a pair of Sweden's more cuddly pajamas, but now, the next morning, they were finally there. Norway looked around Finland's living room. He could feel one of his eyebrows developing a dangerous twitch. He sighed.

"Somebody please enlighten me. When did this become a world-wide incident?"

* * *

A/N: France and burning Santa Claus: Apparently, at some point in history the French burned "Santa Claus" alive because he was seen dangerous and unreligious person. However, soon after that another Santa appeared, so it was futile effort.

_"For the last time, I am __**not **__going __**fishing**__ with you again!" _This is a reference to my other story. If you didn't get this conversation between Canada and Iceland, please go read this story: www. fanfiction .net/s/6088359/1/The_Melting_Ice_Incident. Someone who has read my other stories, might notice some others like this as well. I pointed this one out because it was crucial for the understanding of the conversation.

Thanks for all the reviews (also for those that came to LiveJournal). *bow*

**Seileach:** _So Finland's disappearance is affecting the Nations' feelings about celebrating Christmas, hmm?_ Well kinda ^^


	4. 4th December

**4/24**

It took a long conversation, some oft-used German discipline and an equally oft-used English f-bomb for the situation to start taking proper shape.

"So," England concluded. "You two–" He pointed at America and Korea. "–ran around telling everyone that Finland was kidnapped. From what I understood, your stories also included aliens, psychopaths and a black cat."

"And three blind mice," Hong Kong deadpanned.

England rolled his eyes. "Thank you. Then there is Sweden–" he nodded to the nation, "–who called around half of Northern Europe because he was worried. Then Denmark babbled all of it in the chat and yet more people knew." He sighed. "But there are still a few whose presence makes no sense." He turned to glare at Turkey and Greece. "What are you two doing here?"

"Killing time?" Turkey proposed.

"That's not what I–"

"That guy eavesdropped on Austria telling things to Hungary and then dragged me here with him," Greece explained, glaring daggers at the other.

"What was that?" Hungary asked with murderous cheerfulness.

"Don't believe him!" Turkey objected and pointed at his neighbour. "Don't make things up by yourself you brat! It was _you _who stalked Japan and overheard things!"

Japan and England turned red, but for different reasons.

"Shut up!" England snapped. "I get the point! I shouldn't have asked, my bad. Well in any case, we still don't know where that bloody nation Santa is hiding so let's just find him for now, now that we all ended up here anyway."

"Has anyone called Finland's Mr. Newspaper guy?" America asked. "He might know something."

"Did," Prussia answered. "Says Finland never tells him anything, but if we have a juicy story he's willing to buy."

"Do we have any clues then?" Taiwan asked from an armchair she had invaded.

"Well, we have his phone here," Germany said, holding it up. "With 72 unanswered calls."

"Let's listen to the messages," Lithuania suggested. "Maybe we'll learn something."

Germany nodded, pressed some buttons (after frowning a moment at the Finnish on the screen) and set the phone on a table. The loudspeakers uttered a long string of something incomprehensible to everyone but Estonia for a while before the first message began. It was from America during Friday afternoon.

_"Yo, Fin! When you hear this mind calling me back, would ya. I've got some very important news ya see~ Bet ya can't wait to hear it right? __Mua ha ha ha–"_

England promptly rolled his eyes again, but it went unnoticed by the American. The messages continued to roll and soon it was very clear just who were to blame for those 72 messages.

_"Hey man, mind answering your phone once? This is urgent ya know, I need to tell you something about my present."_

_"Why aren't you answering me! Was I such a bad boy this year? Hey, I'm sorry about that April prank, but that couldn't possibly ruin the whole thing right?"_

_"Oh come on, how many times do I have to call before you notice? I'm a busy man too, hey. I'm a superpower after all. Okay, I understand you're busy too when it's Christmas, but you could still try answering a phone, jeez. I mean, come on, how can you work if you don't know my–"_

_"Damn these message things are short! Won't you invent some new phone that has longer ones, since you're so proud of these things? Anyways, how can you work without knowing what I want for present? What else do you do there? Oh, whatever just pick up already."_

_"__Hello, comrade Finland! __It would be fun if you'd become one with me. Think about it. I'll call again later !" _

_"Okay, I'm sorry I hid Japan's underwear in China's closet, but that's not that bad, is it? So you could answer me, right?"_

At this point China and Japan sent Korea a simultaneous glare.

_"__Hello, __comrade Finland! __You mentioned me in your new voice mail message ! Does that mean you're ready to become one with me? Call back soon, __d__а__~!"_

_"And I didn't really even kidnap Norway! He liked it; you know that right? He liked it, you can ask him!"_

Norway stiffened and went slightly red remembering things during the Valentine's Day that year. Denmark smirked beside mischievously.

_"Oh for fuck's sake, just answer. I'll keep bugging you until you do, ya know, because I want those presents. I got a lovely bunch of coconuts _ _..."_

_"Fiiinlaaand! Y-y-you won't believe what happened! They're all being so mean to me!"_ A hickup_. "Lith−" _Another hicup_. "Lithuania was−" _Wailing and sniffing_. "Can you come and" _Much sniffing_. "comfort me?"_

Lithuania went white and gaped.

Belarus squinted. "Brother calls Finland before me when he is distressed…" she muttered and glared at the phone murderously. "I shall find him and kill him."

She received more than a few alarmed looks, but Russia chuckled cheerfully. "Whoops."

_"Rah rah ah ah ah, roma~ roma ma, ga ga uh la la, want your bad romance... uh... no shit how does this song go again... Oh whatever, just talk to me already so I can update my present list or I won't shut up. __Je ne tu si mi pas__~"_

England facepalmed. "Young man, what do you think these messages are for?"

France shook his head disapprovingly. "Mon chér... your French is awful."

_"Hello, __comrade Finland! __The visit is in two days! I can't wait to meet you again ! While comrade Medvedev and comrade Halonen are discussing politics, you and I could go see some ballet, wouldn't that be fun? I have some good tickets for The Nutcracker at the Bolshoi. Call me back and we will decide where to meet. __Bye__ bye__~!"_

Belarus glared.

The next messages were all the same: Korea apologising for something or another (and from the list one could clearly make out he wasn't actually such a good boy he tried to prove), America singing and demanding Finland to answer, or Russia talking about becoming one with him or ballet or something more perverted. Only one message differed from the others: from Sunday morning, there was a message from Estonia.

"_Hhh... Hi Fin. We need to discuss your voice mail message. I'll call again."_

"Man, you're boring," Korea told the Baltic.

_"You didn't come to our date, comrade Finlaand! We would have had so much fun. I was thinking of ***ing you in the beginning of the second act!"_

Switzerland grabbed Liechtenstein and stormed out.

Korea perked up. "Ah, now this is one of those funny messages again!"

_"And you'd *_**_*~. I know you would." _

England covered Sealand's ears with his hands. China tried to do the same to Taiwan but ended up with a fist to his face for the attempt. France started laughing.

_"And I'd go **** _ _ when you would _ _****~! And ****_ _ing in time with the music!"_

France stopped laughing to gape in horror. Austria paled.

_"And then some _ *_****ing and I'd−"_

Norway was trying to hold Denmark back by the hem of his shirt. "Easy thar, boy."

_"_***** ****** *******_~!"_

He let go. "Go get 'im."

_"And then *****_ _! The Waltz of the Flowers would make perfect background music for that."_

Germany seemed to have frozen in place, so Austria made a dash for the phone.

_"Your **** _ _is so *****_ _ when you _ _***−"_

Austria slammed his hand on the end call button and silence filled the room. Almost everyone was blushing heavily.

Except Russia, who smiled. "Is something wrong, comrade Sweden ?"

Sweden was beyond blushing. He was white. Half of it was anger; the other half was shock. He was standing in front of Russia, clutching a handful of his ever-present scarf in his fist. By the look of his eyes, he was ready to strangle Russia with it.

"And you too, comrade Denmark?"

Denmark had appeared behind him and held Russia's shoulder with an expression that told he wanted an explanation and at the same time wasn't sure if he wanted to hear it.

"Bro~ther~", whispered a low voice from the direction of Belarus.

Russia turned pale. "Whoops…"

"Calm down", Estonia told Sweden and Denmark. "Finland has been used to that since way back in the 1800's."

Sweden's face turned blue.

Lithuania sighed. "So Finland too."

"Whaddya you mean 'Finland _too'_!" Poland shrieked.

"Hey, Germany! What does '*****' mean?"

Germany suddenly seemed to choke on something. "A− eh− I'll tell you sometime."

Just then the door opened and Spain danced in, a reluctant Romano in tow. "Hi there guys! Sorry, are we late? I− wait a minute _France_ is blushing? What on God's sweet Earth didja guys do?"

Ukraine smiled. "Oh, nothing special."

A moment later, Germany coughed as his blushing was starting to settle. "Very well then, there were 20 messages from America, 19 messages from Korea, 32 messages from Russia and one from Estonia and we didn't learn a thing." He glared at the three nations who were responsible for the voice message farce.

Lithuania nodded. "Ok, who was the last to see him?"

"Probably me," Russia chirped and smiled cheerfully. A long silence ensued before he realised that was, facts being facts, a statement that demanded self-defence. "I didn't do anything. Really, I didn't! He just barged in, grabbed the General and left."

"What?"

"Finland and General Winter?" France repeated thoughtfully.

"France, that is so _wrong_."

"How do _you_ know what I was thinking? …If I was thinking that."

"You just admitted it," England mumbled and rolled his eyes for the umpteenth time that day.

"I wonder what he was planning to do with that assault rifle~?"

"_What?"_

"Russia, you need to share that kind of stuff right away," Norway uttered lowly.

"But this was so much more fun~!"

"Sweden needs CPR."

"Don't you dare, Hong Kong."

* * *

A/N: We apologize for the abuse of classical ballet in this chapter (the Nutcracker's The Waltz of the Flowers you can go and hear in youtube if you really want to imagine what can be done in time with that). If you want to know what happened on Valentine's day 2010 between Norway and Korea, please read this fic: http: / / www. fanfiction. net/ s/ 6328656/ 1/ Just_in_Time_for_Valentines_Day

Thanks for reviews and everything else again. Thank you Cheru for proofreading this for us.


	5. 5th December

**5/24**

"He appeared at my place on Friday afternoon," Russia explained with a wide smile. "And he just kept buzzing the doorbell while he waited for me to come let him in. Oh, to think that he was so anxious to see me..."

"Russia," Germany warned before the Russian had a few fellow nations at his throat again. It had been enough of a pain getting Norway and Denmark away from him; Belarus had been almost hopeless. Sweden had been too shocked about everything, so removing him had been relatively easy.

"Oh, yes, yes," Russia continued, making a face that could possibly have looked slightly apologetic if one had been appropriately inebriated. "Well, I was of course surprised that he showed up so suddenly, he usually doesn't stop by..."

"Oh, I wonder why," Norway mumbled dryly.

"...but I was even more surprised when the first thing he did was–"

**Friday, December 17, afternoon**

"Oh, comrade Finland? What gives me the honour–"

"Where's the General?" Finland interrupted, demand in his voice.

Russia looked baffled for a second before catching the question. "In the lounge. Why–"

Before he could finish his northwestern neighbour had shoved him aside, barged in and made his way down the corridor. Russia blinked a few times, closed the door and followed the weirdly acting nation into **his **lounge.

"General!" Finland called loudly as he slammed the door open. His eyes darted around for a while before General Winter appeared to him from the ice that covered one window.

"What?"

Russia didn't know what was going on, but his lips twisted into a sweet smile. "General~. I told you not to come inside so carelessly." He glanced at the gradually freezing furniture. The other two weren't listening to him.

"I need your assistance. You're coming with me," Finland stated with a tone that said there would be no room for arguments.

General Winter didn't understand nonverbal. "Not interested."

Finland huffed and grabbed the other by the collar to show what his tone meant in action. "I didn't ask you to be. Now move."

Russia raised his hand cautiously. "Um... comrade Finland? Maybe you shouldn't touch the General so–"

"Cold-resistant gloves. You should try," the Finn answered curtly and stomped past Russia again, dragging General Winter behind him. "Sorry for the disturbance, Russia. I'm going to borrow him for a while." Finland opened the door.

"Sure, no problem," Russia smiled, waving his hand. "Have fun, General, no hurry back! Oh, comrade Finland, could you stop carrying a rifle in my house? And whatever you do, don't–" But the door had already closed behind the two, leaving Russia to wonder what could possibly be happening.

"Oh well, whatever..."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Something like that," Russia ended his story. "I haven't heard about him or the General after that. I tried calling him later though," he added, chuckling.

Half of the nations blushed. Spain tilted his head.

"Come on, share the fun, guys," he demanded, poking Austria. "Tell me, what happened here before I got Romano to admit he wanted to come."

"I never said such a thing, tomato brain!"

"I... I'll never repeat that," Austria said, coughing delicately and trying so hard not to blush that he blushed anyway.

Spain sighed, shaking his head. "If even you won't, who'll I ask? Why won't anyone tell me?"

Austria's blush settled as he frowned at the Spanish man. "I fail to understand what you mean by 'even me'."

Spain raised his hands. "Well you could tell me just to be polite. Besides you're a closet pervert, aren't ya?"

This time Austria blushed for real and grimaced in shock. "Whoever claimed such a thing?"

"No one," Spain smiled. "I just know you are."

"I beg to differ!" the aristocratic nation objected. At this point he was so red that Mariazell had to work as a chimney to keep his brain from being permanently damaged after it had already taken a serious hit from the voice mail messages. Hungary had produced a video camera.

"Oh~ prissy, your face is telling otherwise," Prussia chirped, grinning viciously behind him and leaning closer.

"S-shut your mouth!" Austria pushed him back.

"Prussia, drop it," Germany ordered, sending a glare to his brother. "We're talking about Finland right now. Russia, so neither one came back?"

"That's right," Russia said, nodding.

"So Finland was last seen on Friday afternoon, in Russia, with an assault rifle, before going off radar along with General Winter," England summarised and finished taking notes down.

"Hm." France smiled knowingly. "I knew it. Elopers–"

"Shut up, frog!" England snapped before the Frenchman could continue.

"Svi, what's wrong with you?" Iceland asked suddenly, turning the general attention to the Nordics.

"W... wait," Sweden mumbled and stumbled out of the room, a couple of curious nations at his heels. He sprinted upstairs with a horrified expression on his face and entered Finland's study, reaching for the right key in his pocket to unlock the closet, only to remember he didn't have one. He turned around to the nations who had followed him. "I need'a open this."

"Leave it to me," Spain grinned. "I know just the right guy to do that."

Soon the irritated Southern Italy was crouching beside the lock, grumbling under his breath about something or another that probably had something to do with Spain. Soon the picklock did its job and Sweden yanked the sturdy closet open to reveal a fine collection of firearms. Switzerland whistled behind him and looked suddenly quite happy to have come.

"Impressive," he noted, investigating the inside of the closet carefully. "Maybe it's worth finding him so we can have a little talk."

"Knew it," Sweden sighed and pressed his palm to one gap in the line of guns. One of the bigger ones was undoubtedly missing.

"So the missing one is the biggest he has at home," France sighed from the door. "You won't take something like that down for just anything."

"Actually, I think he always takes it with him to Russia," Estonia corrected.

"Eh?" Russia asked oblivious. "Why? And besides, I haven't seen it for a while."

"He hides it of course," Estonia answered, pushing his glasses up. "How, I don't know. And as to why, Russia, we could just go listen those voice messages again."

"Don't you dare..." heard an objection from multiple directions, except from Spain who instead chose to say, "yes, please."

After Romano had locked the closet door again, the nations returned back downstairs and found England in the process of rounding up more nations. Currently he was busy making Australia answer his phone. Some others followed his example, this seemed a fun way to not be doing Christmas preparations and besides, there were still nations out there who would be very angry if they were not invited. Half of the rest tried to hold them back and when they didn't succeed, proceeded to explore Finland's house. The very few who did none of this tried to come up with the plan to find Finland.

"Australia," England said emphatically. He was leaving another voice message. "I know you are in there and yes, I know you're on holiday, but you could still pick up your damn phone."

"I know that," Germany continued at the other end of the room. "But we should let Finland's president know about this."

"Don't you think he already does?" France hummed. "With his poor worried neighbour calling around everyone yesterday." He glanced at Sweden with a smile that wasn't returned.

"But they might not know that we're all currently visiting here," Germany insisted. "Twenty nations in a country is big deal out of blue."

"Isn't that just okay?" Russia waved his hand to such matters. "Wouldn't be the first time."

"But now Finland's not here with us!" Germany argued back and picked his phone. "I'll call her."

Russia grabbed the phone and prevented the other from using it. "It's okay, comrade Germany, I can be the host, _da?_"

"Rejected."

At the bookshelf Turkey was currently calling Egypt. "Yo man, are ya busy?" Pause. "Good, so ya can fly yar ass to Finland's?" Pause. "Just come and I'll explain– yes, Greece is here too." Pause. "Whaddya mean third wh– wait a minute, you don't think we would–"

Greece took the phone from him. "Egypt. Just come here." Then he hanged up.

"Hey, _I_ was talking with him," Turkey objected loudly.

"Talking, huh..." Taiwan repeated quietly.

China shook his head. "It still confuses me how they manage to talk with him -especially on the phone- and understand even he when doesn't say anything."

"Down Under," England spat at the phone. "This is the last warning. Answer your phone, you slacker, or I'll tell everyone about the New Year party pillow incident."

He shut the phone and set in on the table in front of him, crossed his arms and waited.

"Oh. Aren't you calling again?" Hungary asked, raising her eyebrow.

"Just wait," England muttered and kept staring at the phone. As Australia treasured his holidays, he usually didn't care to talk about anything serious during one, and as England usually had something work related in mind when calling him, he usually didn't answer. But England had already thought of a trump card for whenever that happened. Soon the phone rang and with a smirk the Brit answered with the loud speakers on.

_"Stop calling me 'Down Under'!"_

England hummed victoriously and winked at Hungary. "See?"

"Could you people shut your mouths _and_ phones for a while and listen!" Germany ordered loudly, irritated. "We need to find Finland, and –Prussia! Hands off from his beer storage! – now we need to think up a way we can start searching."

"Oh, but that's easy," Russia assured and with everyone's baffled gaze on him he proceeded to open the window and leaned outside, raising his voice a little. "Oooi General! "

"What?" General Winter asked, immediately appearing in front of him, like he always did if Russia just called him.

Germany appeared behind the Russian with Switzerland, Austria and England at his heels and the next second, Russia was treated to an A-level hit on his head courtesy of two fists, one palm and one rifle butt. "TELL THOSE THINGS SOONER!"

* * *

A/N: Thank you for the reviews again. If so many of you now support Russia and Finland for the 4th chapter, I can think I've achieved something. Though, I'm not so much fond of the pair myself XD

General Winter's lines are originally coloured blue, which of course doesn't show here. The LJ post has this feature, but since I don't find this detail crucial story-wise I won't link it unless someone is to request it.


	6. 6th December

**6/24**

The questioning of General Winter was something rather amusing and exciting to watch. The moment he had appeared in Finland's garden, snow had started falling softly from the gray clouds in the sky. Not many of the nations ever so much as exchanged a word with this freezing cold old man who floated over the earth at his own will and who had been around longer than most of them. Russia seemed quite adapted to it though.

"I took him to see Grandfather Frost," the general said indifferently when Russia asked where Finland was.

"Eh?" Russia tilted his head. So did many others behind him and frowning was a popular expression.

"He didn't tell me the details, but kept talking about saving Christmas."

"I don't really get it," Poland said, shaking his head.

"So... When did you part from him?" England asked, taking half a step forward.

"Yesterday. He went inside the castle alone. I waited around for a while but he didn't come back out," the General shrugged, and a small cloud of ice flew around him. "So I decided to detour home through Cyprus for fun and profit."

"_WHAT?" _Greece and Turkey bellowed, then immediately shuddered for accidentally agreeing on something.

"Excuse me, but," Germany interrupted, sounding just as strict and painfully polite speaking to the personification of winter as he would to just another civil servant. "Would you mind telling some details?"

General Winter sighed and the tip of Russia's nose slightly froze in front of him.

**Friday, December 17, afternoon**

"Sorry, but I'm in a pretty bad mood right now. I hope you understand," Finland started when Russia's door closed behind him.

"What's this about?" General Winter asked as he was dragged out of Russia's house to the comfortably cold afternoon.

"You'll be my guide," Finland answered and finally let go of the other. "I'm going to see Grandfather Frost and I don't have the tiniest clue where to go, so you're going to show me the way."

"What do you want from the old man?"

"I'm going to take Christmas back," Finland muttered with a low voice, as if he was angry. After a little thinking, the General decided that he actually was.

"You could have asked Russia," he noted (coldly, which was saying something.)

"As if." Finland tossed his head. "Even I know that we've to go into the wild. That guy would immediately start going on about sharing body heat and at least I won't have _that_ problem with you. You two are difficult at different extremes of the word and I deal with this end better."

"Thanks."

Finland sighed. "That wasn't a compliment."

General Winter coughed a few very stylish snow crystals sophisticatedly to the air. "Okay, if you give me something other than a scarf for a present this year, I don't mind taking a little trip. But you're not going to walk, are you?"

"Yes of course."

"...Really?"

"No, imbecile."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

When Finland introduced the General to his "vehicle", there was a very long silence. Both Finland and the "vehicle" tilted their heads, waiting for some kind of response, which continued not to come.

Finland sighed again. "Just say something, okay?" he asked, shaking his head.

For a good while yet, the General remained silent. "A reindeer," he finally blurted.

"A remarkable observation," Finland noted with a dry smile.

"No sleigh?"

"Do you see one? I'm going to ride her of course. Here, you see the reins, right?" Finland held up the end of a peculiar leather contraption that the General, being as he was uninterested in the finer points of human craftsmanship, was only vaguely able to identify as reins. Then again, this _was _Finland and it _was_ a reindeer.

General Winter frowned. "You can't ride a reindeer."

"Of course I can!" Finland said, looking offended. The reindeer looked almost as offended. "She's Father Christmas's reindeer, even though she might still be in training. Oh, her name is Rascal because, well, she is one. Or was, when she was younger since that's when they named her of course but nowadays I've heard that she behaves quite well. Of course she's still young and some of the official Christmas sleigh reindeer would have been more trustworthy, but they're busy with their special training. That's to keep the sleigh as steady as possible if they hit some hideous air currents, of course. Besides, they've gone fat during the autumn, especially Rudolph. Quite unexpected don't you think? The old man nagged about it all the time in October when I first went to see him this year. Though he can't really complain about someone else being fat, now can he? But anyway, recently– where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going home. I just remembered why I usually hang out with Russia."

"Oh no you're not! Drag your icy ass back here!"

"Then shut it for a while. Take your deer and let's go."

"_Rein_deer!"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The snow was soft and piled in thigh-high drifts, changing in depth as the forest changed in thickness. Where usually a reindeer with its cloven hooves would have had a hard time making any progress, Rascal stepped contentedly on the surface of the freshly fallen snow, leaving only slight traces behind her. Had she been an adult and fully educated, nothing would have been left behind. After all, why did people think no one ever found trails on their roofs or gardens or whatever route Father Christmas (or Finland) chose to use? Rascal couldn't fly yet, but she was already very good at defying gravity to a certain extent.

Finland was pleased with his helper: the reindeer's fur was soft and her steps smooth, so he had no problem balancing on her back (of course, there wasn't a saddle. "You don't put one on a reindeer," Father Christmas had said when introducing Finland to the doe. "At least not on one of mine.") And since this young one had been chosen from all the young reindeer especially because of her cleverness, she knew perfectly well how important a load she carried, on how important a mission. Finland was indeed very pleased. He wondered if he could ask Father Christmas if he could keep Rascal for a while after the mission or maybe borrow her some other time. A ride in a snowy forest like this, in fresh air and sunshine, was just too perfect, even when Finland constantly had a reminder of his task in the back of his head. Just one thing was truly bothering him.

"There isn't any easier way?" he asked when yet another load of snow fell on him from a low branch. This time he managed to dodge just enough that it didn't reach his neck again.

"This is comfortable," the General answered simply. Because he was the only one who knew where they were going, Finland couldn't really complain.

"Oh, I see," the nation said dryly and rolled his eyes. "As long as it's fast..."

"There isn't such a thing as a fast and easy road to the old man's ice castle," General Winter glanced over his shoulder. "We'll be trekking quite a while yet."

Finland sighed. "Then I'd better send a message to someone so they don't have to worry if I'm away for a while. I doubt the reception is much good though..." He started searching his phone from the little bag of essentials he had with him. "I'm actually surprised no one has called me yet. Usually it's about this time of year that a couple of them start calling about what they want for a present. I wonder– uh!"

"Hm?" General Winter stopped, looking over his shoulder. "What?"

"Eh, it's shut off. No wonder no one has called..." Finland muttered, quickly turning the thing on. A light flashed on screen and then it went black again. Finland's eyebrow twisted. "General?"

"What?"

"Aren't you..." Finland smiled cheerfully to the man standing beside him. "...A bit close?"

"You think so?" General Winter didn't seem to get his point.

Finland raised his fist but didn't let his smile falter. "You're freezing my phone."

"Really?" The General raised an eyebrow. "Lemme see." His fingers barely managed to touch the phone before Finland nudged Rascal to sidestep and his phone was saved from a complete disaster.

"Oh no I won't. If your presence is bad enough then what would happen if you touch it?" the nation questioned and then turned his attention back to the phone. "But it seems it has died a while ago already, so it's not really your fault. Though I'm sure you've _something _to do with it." He glared.

"Prove it."

"I'll see you in court…"

"Make it an outdoor trial. I can concentrate better," General Winter answered, completely calm.

"I'll take you to a damn sauna just out of spite," Finland laughed once and then turned his attention back to his dead phone. After trying to revive it for a while without success, Finland cursed. "Fucking. Useless− um.. wait a sec…" He took off the back cover and checked the battery to see whom he had to blame. "Chinese thing!"

"Shall we?" General was starting to get bored. He didn't like new technology so much or technology in general, actually (it froze if he tried to use it).

Finland stuffed the phone back to his bag, sighing deeply while giving Rascal an order to continue. "And it was brand new..."

**Monday, December 20, afternoon**

"So it had nothing to do with aliens." America sounded _very_ disappointed.

"And after that?" England asked the General, paying no heed to the sulking American.

"We went on," the general explained simply, shrugging. "Arrived at the castle on Sunday afternoon, and since I had no deal to actually help him after that I just watched him and that deer go in. Then I got bored of counting snow flakes after twelve hours so I left."

"Twelve hours?" Prussia asked. "Jeez..."

"Really, what could have taken Finland so long–" Austria began.

"How could you count _snowflakes _for that long? Man, you must have really been bored..."

"_Prussia..._" Austria growled, but before the other could grant him his awesome attention, America raised his voice again.

"I decided!" he shouted, making them jump.

England shivered visibly. "W... what?"

"It doesn't matter if it has nothing to do with aliens!" America exclaimed and failed to notice how many people either rolled their eyes or face palmed. "This is not a time to worry about that!"

"Then what?" France asked, mildly interested.

"We'll go save Finland!"

"...Huh?"

* * *

A/N: The hits have passed 1100. Thank you so very much to everyone for supporting us.

Grandfather Frost: Ded Moroz might be more familiar to someone. He is a similar character to Father Christmas in Slavic countries. Note: Those who know Grandfather Frost, we have to warn you that we actually don't. The Grandpa Frost in this story tries by no means to be the official one. We trusted to the freedom of speech and took the resbonsibility as authors to create our own, though we tried to follow the information we know, as much as we could.

To all my dear fellow Finns there: Hyvää itsenäisyyspäivää (Happy Independence Day). And Finland: Happy Brithday.


	7. 7th December

**7/24**

"What?" Turkey asked after a moment of silence.

"You're saying we go to Grandfather Frost's home, knock on the door and politely go 'hello, have you seen Finland lately by any chance'?" England asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Of course not," America answered. He looked offended at the idea alone. "This calls for some excellent spy work in the best guaranteed-to-work secret mission style." He grinned.

Iceland sighed. "Then wouldn't it be better to leave this to Finland's government?"

"I said _excellent_ spy work, there's no way Finland's guys could do that," America rejected, frowning.

"What do ya know about Fin's intelligence service?" Norway wanted to know.

"He has none," America said, shaking his head. "I've never heard of it."

Norway raised a hand to his forehead, eyebrows twitching dangerously. England sighed in defeat. "Just what did I do wrong...?" he muttered, low enough for the person in question not to hear.

"Anyway, there's no doubt he needs to be rescued," America continued.

Japan raised his hand. "Excuse me, America... but wouldn't it be possible that he's already returning and needs no assista–"

"No," America interrupted him briskly. "He's in need of rescue. My hero senses are tingling." He clenched his fingers into a fist and closed his eyes as if trying to sense something with his Herodar™.

"I can tell that too!" Korea cheered. "We have to save Christmas _and_ Finland! He needs us!"

"Oh dear, of course we must help a friend in need," Liechtenstein said serenely and took his brother's hand. "Brother, please help them find Finland."

"Nuh–" Switzerland was about to reject that right away, but then his eyes met the sparkling ones of his little sister. "W-why should we bother? America will do something about it."

"Switzerland," Austria hissed quietly. "You're going to leave this to _America_?"

"Tch," Switzerland huffed and sent a glare first to America and then to Austria, loathed to admit that his irritating neighbour had a point. "But I can't take Liecht to such an dangerous place."

"Of course I'll stay here," the tiny female nation smiled. "I'll wait here for your return and prepare for Christmas. Since we all came here, we might as well help Finland prepare his house for the celebration and spend it here together."

"Well, all of us going on this rescue trip would be a bad idea in any case," Germany admitted, nodding to Liechtenstein to thank her for a rare reasonable argument. "It would be better that only a selected few go."

"Whoah, Germany." England looked genuinely surprised. "How rare of you to agree to something America decides to do."

Germany smiled softly. "I know it's weird, but just thinking about it makes me feel better than I have in days."

France shuddered violently. "Don't give that creepy expression..."

"I'm _smiling_!"

"But it's true," Lithuania put in. "The thought of going to find Finland and especially that we'd celebrate Christmas together somehow gives a comfortable feeling to me too."

Russia smiled and nodded. "Mm. It's warm."

"Oh dear, are you sick?" General Winter asked from the window, worry in his voice. "Shall I fix that problem for you?"

"No, thank you."

"Awesome!" Prussia shouted, throwing both hands up in the air. "Action! So of course I'm going! Who's coming with me? Specs?"

"Not coming," Austria answered immediately. "I'll stay behind and supervise everything here to make sure things run smoothly."

"You're boring."

"No, I'm practical and sophisticated." Austria adjusted his glasses.

"Like I said, boring," Prussia said. Austria gave him a practical and sophisticated death glare.

The division between 'Team Awesome' and 'Team Boring', as Prussia called them, was settled with surprising ease. Most knew right away which group they wanted to be in, although for a few of the nations it took some persuading. There were times it was hard, as in the case of making Egypt understand that him travelling into the heart of Russia in the middle of winter was not the best idea. At other times it was easy, as in the case of pressuring Switzerland to join the Rescue group (all it took was a tiny please from Liechtenstein and a piece of cheese Norway offered him from Finland's fridge.) Still other times, persuasion proved flat out impossible and so Italy and Hong Kong would be joining the quest to save Finland from Grandfather Frost.

The decision that begot the most questions was Korea declaring he would stay in Finland. When many nations expressed their confusion; Korea just rolled his eyes and explained that if America were to lead one group, he'd be the natural choice to lead the other one. No one quite followed this logic (except America) nor agreed on the idea that America was some kind of a leader (except America).

Another surprise came when Poland suddenly decided that some cold air would be totally fabulous for his hair and joined the Rescue party. _With _Lithuania, duh. So Lithuania joined the Rescue party. Only General Winter who would naturally become their guide seemed to understand Poland's reasoning. In the end the only Baltic to stay behind was Latvia when Estonia decided he needed to help his friend (and grace Operation Let's Rescue Finland with a little more brains). All in all, making up the groups took only about two hours, which was noted as a record time for any gathering of nations to come to a conclusion that actually worked.

"But don't we need visas to travel to Russia?" England asked when the groups had been decided and the Rescuers were thinking up their plans. "Getting those takes time. Especially to Russia." He sent a glare to the nation in question.

"Don't worry, comrade England," Russia assured him. "I'll make sure everything runs smoothly. It won't take them that long if I ask nicely enough." He gave them an innocent smile.

"Somehow I get a weird feeling when he says that..." Hungary muttered to Hong Kong, who nodded in agreement.

"I'll send a message ahead to prepare us a fast way to our destination," Russia continued. "Of course my boss is likely to object a little but he'll learn to live with it."

"_That_ was the problem?" Germany wondered.

"General." England turned to the window. "How long will it take us to get there?"

"That depends on how you travel," General Winter shrugged. "Last time, there was me and an untiring reindeer and we took about a day and a half from Russia's house."

"What were you planning we use, Russia?" Turkey asked from beside the window where he was leaning on the wall, looking from the General to the Slavic nation. "I'm not gonna walk all the way there, just so ya know."

"Erm~," Russia looked to the ceiling. "I was thinking snowmobiles... And fly as close as possible with helicopters."

"If you use helicopters, it'll be hard for me to direct you," General Winter interrupted. "If I get too close the rotors will freeze."

"That's why we go to the closet possible place they can arrange some snowmobiles to and continue by land from there," Russia explained, offended. "I really hope you'd listen to me once, General."

"Sounds good." America nodded, looking important. "Yes. Good work, Russia."

"Like I said," England growled, seeming to hold back an urge to whack the American. "Stop acting like some leader."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The walls around him curved in and made the ceiling a flawless dome. Everything was ice: the walls, the ceiling, and the floor. Even the bars on the little window on the door were made of ice. Finland thought idly that they looked like stalactites, or stalagmites, which one was it when they grew together? His captor had called it steel-ice, the rock-solid kind that wouldn't be broken or melted so easily. That was really the important thing about them; they were as good as unbreakable and blocked his way out and had been doing that for quite a while already.

He didn't know how long had he been here. Somewhere beyond the walls shone a blueish light that illuminated his cell, but it didn't fade or waver and Finland had long since concluded it wasn't natural light and therefore couldn't be used for reading time. Since there really wasn't anything to do, it was cold and Finland had been sleeping for an indeterminate time he had absolutely no idea what time of day – or what day to that matter – it was.

A small shivering snout poked out from his arms as he sat there, his back against the far wall. Finland smiled softly to the white fur ball in his lap and clutched it closer, his fingers remembering the touch of soft fur even if he was wearing gloves.

"Are you cold?" he asked quietly, a bit of a useless question. "Don't worry. I'll keep you warm."

The snout sniffed his sleeve and wriggled its way inside it to where it was warmer. Finland smiled for a moment before a meditative mask slipped over his features again. He needed to find a way to escape. And fast. One thing about time he knew: it wasn't Christmas yet. As long as it wasn't, he hadn't lost the game.

* * *

A/N: To enlighten you: Russia is not the easiest place to get a visa to. Well, not he hardest either, States is even more difficult, but still.

And: Only Austria is capable of doing a sophisticated death glare. Please don't try this at home.

Thank you again everyone. We try to keep this fic updated every day, according to the original plan, but we're currently all busy so please don't slaughter us if one chapter may at some point be late. We'll do our best!


	8. 8th December

**8/24**

**Sunday, December 19th, afternoon**

"Jesus Christ," Finland swore, staring wide-eyed at the huge ice castle in front of him. "Hasn't this guy heard of modesty?"

"Hm," the General just commented, leaning onto a tree. It was one of the last trees before a little open yard in front of the building that served as a home for Grandfather Frost. "Are you going to walk up to the front door?"

"Yeah, I'm going to knock and say 'hi, could I get Christmas back, please? Ahaha~' – no," Finland answered sarcastically and then fell silent, pondering _how_ he was going to get inside. It would have been easy if Rascal had known how to fly though a flying reindeer probably wouldn't have been the most easily concealable sight. Finland let his eyes wander over the house, from the main door to all the windows and towers, small and large, balconies and– the hell, was that a slide? It was a perfect fantasy castle, sparkling white and blue in snow and sun. Finland frowned at one detail. "Say," he asked General Winter. "Why isn't that water in the moat frozen? Even though it's this cold."

"The old man keeps it open by altering temperatures around it. A frozen moat wouldn't really do its job, right?" his guide answered, doodling a huge snowflake on the tree trunk with ice he produced from his fingertip.

"Well yeah, I guess," the nation admitted and nodded. "You have any idea how I'd get in unnoticed?"

"No. Since _I_ always go through the front door like normal people." General Winter gave Finland a glance and moved on to draw a snow leopard beside his other drawings (around the snowflake had appeared a heart, a rough bird and something that looked like a distant relative of an octopus.) When drawing the big cat proved too difficult; he resigned to a kitten instead, which came out quite well.

By the time he was done, Finland had long since excused himself and Rascal and gone looking for an entrance for not-normal people. The General had a vague recollection he had actually said goodbye but then his kitten looked lonely and he started drawing her a partner, forgetting about the nation for the time being.

Meanwhile, Finland and Rascal were circling the castle in the shade of the trees, hoping no one would notice them. Finland knew the moat wouldn't be a problem to the reindeer so the focus of his attention was on where to cross the water and what to do after that. He only paid cursory attention to their surroundings: Rascal was taking care of that, choosing her path through the trees based on concealment.

Finland stopped his eyes to one window. "Rascal?" he leaned in to whisper to the reindeer. "It's almost Christmas so your strength should be about double the usual, right?"

He could have sworn the doe smiled.

"Let's go," Finland commanded, smirking in excitement. He made sure the gun was secure on his back as Rascal chose a good place to start a dash. Finland searched through his small backbag for a while and soon found what he needed. "I know you're still in training but this much you can do, right?" he checked again.

Rascal sent him a glare that clearly said he was a complete and total idiot and Finland figured he had no talent with women whatsoever. He let the reindeer handle the rest and focused on the little decorated pouch that fit nicely in his palm. He pulled the red ribbons to get to its precious contents. Father Christmas had given him a little bit of his magic to make him temporarily invisible. He had warned Finland against using too much of it due to some side-effects it had on anyone else than the official Santa, his folk and the reindeers, and there certainly wasn't enough of it for both Rascal and Finland for a long while. He had to decide whether to hide them thoroughly while they entered or use just a little bit first and save some for later.

Finland decided on the latter alternative and spread the light powdery stuff over them carefully. Rascal sneezed, making her muzzle visible for a while before Finland scolded her and gathered the floating powder back around her head with his free hand. When he was done, he could see a distortion in the air where they were, but otherwise they were hidden. Finland smiled. Finally he had a feeling he was starting his mission for real.

He gave Rascal the green light, grabbing the reindeer's neck and the reins tightly to not fall off while they were moving. He barely managed to get a good grip when she already dashed forwards.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Elsewhere in the woods that surrounded the castle; General Winter had just finished his masterpiece: a snowy kitten farm with a puppy dog farmer and a pet octopus, all shining in the warm light of a heart. Yes. Just perfect. Now that he was feeling artistic, what to draw next?

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Rascal took a good running start before she tensed, bent her hind legs and stepped on the air. She put all her power into hopping higher with each step, up and up in a graceful arc until she knew she had reached her limits. The doe used the last second she could stay in the air for one more leap to the top of the outer wall. Ice clattered under her hooves when they made it and she used the last of the momentum and her unfledged magic to jump again, now straight forward and in through an uncovered window, safely to the ice blue floor. Then to climax their awesome invasion, she slipped on the ice and they both tumbled down. Finland flew off her back and ended up sprawled on the floor, the gun clattering to a stop by his side.

Staring up at the icy ceiling, the nation sighed slowly. "Rascal, that was just inelegant."

The reindeer snorted but she did seem slightly embarrassed. Finland scrambled up. "Well we got in, so never mind the style points." He picked up his rifle and looked around. The room was small, simple and besides the extreme cold looked very comfortable. It looked like a bedroom, though Finland wondered briefly if anyone in the castle actually needed to sleep. He thanked his lucky stars that the room was empty in any case. They hadn't had too many choices about what window to use. Rascal stood up behind him and clip-clopped a few steps to close the distance between them.

Finland only saw his loyal partner from the corner of his eye, but he smiled at her. "You want to wait outside?" he asked quietly.

Rascal answered by pressing her muzzle into his armpit and wriggling her way under Finland's arm. She pressed against him affectionately and Finland followed the curve of her neck to find the reindeer's ears and give her a quick scratch. Then he let go and proceeded to the door, the reindeer at his heels.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

After managing to make his second masterpiece – a snowy puppy dog farm with a kitten farmer and a pet octopus – look like a mouse farm struck by a snowstorm and a pet barbapapa, General Winter had lost his artistic mood and had settled to counting snowflakes on a fallen birch branch beside him. Currently he was on five hundred and seventy-nine.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Grandfather Frost's castle was surprisingly big, labyrinthine and filled with staircases to be the home of someone called a 'grandfather'. Finland couldn't help but think that if one of the elders he had ever met lived in this castle, they'd need a lift, a map, and lots of servants. Grandfather Frost seemed to have none while Finland himself would have appreciated the first two very much. Pretty soon, he had no idea where they had come from their starting point (Rascal had proved to rival Austria when it came to directions) or where he could possibly start looking.

They scouted around for a few hours, spent a quarter of that time hiding from the inhabitants of the castle, an hour walking around and wondering at the beauty of the place, and the rest of the time wondering where they currently were. Finland noticed with some alarm that the invisibility was slowly wearing off. A few times already they had only been rescued by the fact nobody had looked straight at them. Now that they were becoming visible again, they'd have to be more cautious. The problem wasn't really hiding a nation but hiding a reindeer. Finland could dive behind a curtain or in a closet, or flatten himself into some curve of the ornate walls, but Rascal possibly couldn't. Rascal had noticed the same thing herself, but didn't show any concern. She was floating a snowflake's width above the floor again so at least her steps were not heard.

_We must be as quick as we can then, this is no time to stay put in fear of being caught, _Finland thought as he glanced around a corner to check if the road was clear. _I should probably look for a prison for now and those should classically be downstairs, so I need to find some stairs. _He slipped down the corridor and whispered to Rascal behind him to keep her eyes open as well.

They managed to find a promising staircase soon enough. Finland took a deep breath. Stairs didn't sit well with his sneaking mode. There were too many unknowns: how far down, what would be there, was there any way out in case they were spotted. If someone happened to climb up at the same time they were going down... He shook it off, they really had no time to hesitate.

Then they were climbing down, someone inevitably was coming up at the same time and Finland's lucky stars flickered and faded.

* * *

A/N: 

**Doesn't-Have-An-Account Person**: Please direct you thanks to my dear co-author who added that detail.

**NuttyEmmy**: What game? :S


	9. 9th December

**9/24**

Poland was the first one to step out of the Russian military helicopter in the Velikiy Ustyug Airport after their quite long flight from a smaller army base near the Finnish border. It was already the twenty-first of December, even when Russia had arranged them the fastest ways to travel around. They had now arrived to the hometown of Grandfather Frost.

Poland hopped down from the helicopter and stretched long and contently, then instantly shivering violently. "It's like… _cold_ here!"

"It's winter, duh," Lithuania noted from behind him, accidently copying the valley-girl speech. "Make way so the others can get out as well."

Poland stepped aside and the whole group climbed down. Russia appeared from cockpit and gave short instructions to the airport personnel that had come closer. The airport had gotten a message beforehand that they were arriving shortly and it was okay to slip them through the security check uninspected: no, they were _not_ suspicious even when they were clearly multi-national, quite a few of them had a huge gun with them, one looked like a potential terrorist, another gave out a very intimidating aura, one kept talking about pasta and one spoke in a valley-girl accent. No, they were definitely not suspicious. Russia smiled cheerfully as he took the lead of the group and led the way to the cars they were going to use to get to the place where their snowmobiles were waiting for them.

As they were approaching the cars, America sneezed loudly. "You couldn't have asked General to make it a little warmer here?" he asked Russia and rubbed his cheeks to warm them up.

"I can warm you up, _da?_" Russia offered smiling (and ignoring the general frowning, especially from a certain Brit) before adding. "You're really not good with cold are you, America?"

"You can't be cold _already_," England argued. "Be a man and stop complaining about everything. Didn't you just groan during the whole flight that you should have been one to fly?"

"Yeah, but I should have been the one!" America defended. "I'm the hero that should do that kind of action. And besides, it _is _cold in here."

"Do you really think General Winter would make it warmer if we asked?" Germany asked dryly, producing a small cloud while blowing air from his lungs.

"Don't you complain," Greece mumbled to the American. "I'm the one here with the warmest average temperature."

"Then go home," Turkey suggested scowling.

"Are you so sure?" Hong Kong asked, meaning the case of the warmest temperature.

"That's right," Italy cheered, playing with the snow in his hands. "It's pretty warm in Italy too. China has it warm too, right?"

China glanced at the smiling Italian. "Yes. At some parts. But I'm fine with cold. America should really get it together, though."

"I just don't like cold, okay!" America protected himself again. "Winters should be spent inside playing games and drinking something warm or then just briefly going downhill skiing or something, but–"

"Then go home!" Belarus snapped.

"I can't!" America exclaimed. "I must be a hero and save Finland from the evil villain!"

"Grandpa Frost is a nice old man," Russia noted. "In the past, he was more vicious but I think getting older and having an own granddaughter made him like kids."

"Nice old mans don't kidnap innocent nations!"

Denmark snorted but said nothing. Sweden glared at him. "G'home."

"Why me too?" Denmark objected.

They'd just arrived to the cars and were now dividing into a groups travelling in the cars they had. Six persons fit into the one car including the driver so all three of them were filled. Russia took the driver's seat in the first one again, being the only to know where they were going. Sweden and Estonia sat behind the steering wheel in the other two.

"Do I have to be in the same car with _that_?" Turkey and Greece asked at the same time, pointing at each other.

"Yes," Russia answered simply, smiled and stuffed them forcefully to the back seat and closing the door behind them. "Comrade Switzerland~" he sing-songed. "You're coming here too, _da_?"

Switzerland didn't even look at his direction but stepped into another car beside Estonia. Italy however took the invitation and hopped cheerfully into Russia's car. Germany was left between wondering should he consider Italy's safety and go with him, or take on account his own comfort. He decided he should go to the car and prevent it from exploding on the way, as Hong Kong decided to climb in too.

Prussia didn't even consider stepping a foot inside that car (especially when the car was now full) and went after Switzerland, only to be kicked out by the said nation and climbed to the third car with China, Poland, Lithuania and Denmark. Gilbird, who had a colourful scarf around its neck, was glad to be out of the cold for a while and chirped contently on the top of his head. Hungary went to Estonia's car to scold Switzerland, who didn't even blink at the woman. But soon his eyes grew darker as the next one to climb in was Belarus, who was in a very bad mood after not getting into the same car as Russia. Switzerland's expression grew yet strained when America and England were the next to climb in and the last, but for the sake of his little sister's wish, he said nothing.

Now that the cars were full they were ready to depart again. General Winter would already be waiting for them at their destination.

"Hang in there Finland," America vowed on his seat. "We're on our way."

England let a deep sigh and face palmed.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Okay!" Korea exclaimed loudly when they'd managed to gather everyone around into the same space. The Rescuers had left the building a while ago. "Finland has a huge and spacious house and we have to clean, decorate and prepare it for Christmas! We'll be needing all of your help." Korea was standing on a chair to make everyone see and hear him, even if they didn't want to. "I'm gonna be your supreme commander but you can just call me 'Commander' for the time being. Okay so now! It is time for some action!"

"Why should we obey someone like you?" Southern Italy shouted irritated to make his opinion clear. "I'm not going to do _anything _for this stupid party, just so you know!"

"Yes you are!" Korea shouted back, looking offended when his status was already questioned. "You're going to clean–"

"I'm not!" Romano interrupted, not even wanting to hear what the Asian had in store for him.

"Now, now, isn't this just interesting," France smiled serenely. "The others are working so hard after all. We should give them a warm welcome when they come back."

"A warm welcome?" Belgium repeated, amused.

"I don't wanna know," Norway mumbled and rolled his eyes.

"Well, Korea– excuse me: _Commander_, let's hear you out," France continued. "What have you planned?"

The Asian shined with happiness. "Well, first we need to make a proper division of labour," Korea began eagerly, happy that they were listening to him, excluding Romano. "This place needs cleaning. We need food for let's say forty nations and above all the Christmas decoration. If we include this day, we've about six days to get everything ready."

"What do you mean 'six', the Eve is in five days," Iceland interrupted.

"Okay, five then. Anyway, we need to decide who is going to do what and then plan what exactly are we doing," the Commander summarized. "Anyway, I want to plan and take part in the decorations." He looked psyched up.

"Then I can take care of the cleaning," Austria offered. "We'll pick up some people to plan the decoration, some others to plan the menu and the rest start with the cleaning and proceed to help the others. Does that sound sufficient?"

"Great!" Korea looked even more psyched up. "Who'll supervise the cooking?"

"I can do that," Ukraine volunteered, raising her hand and smiling. "If I'm just good enough."

"Of course you are," the Korean assured. "Now let's get started."

"What's wrong, Belgium?" Canada asked the woman beside him quietly.

"No..." The other looked meditative for a moment, frowning before she continued. "No, I just got a feeling I've forgotten something, but oh, whatever."

* * *

A/N: The city of Velikiy Ustyug is a traditional home of Grandfather Frost. Anyone guesses what Belgium has forgotten?

**NuttyEmmy**: I don't get it :S What's wrong? Don't cry (this is _supposed _to be funny).

**Maya-chan2007**: Of course they are ^^ You can go and look for them.

**ChibiDryad242**: Where is here? Anyway, I guess that's it. =)


	10. 10th December

**10/24**

"I'm driving," Prussia said once more.

"No you're not," Hungary answered. "Or if you are, we're going to change pairs."

"Fine with me, missy," Prussia hissed. Anyone looking could see air crackling with electricity between them. Germany could do nothing but sigh.

"Oh, please stop fighting you two," Lithuania pleaded from the next snowmobile in line. "Besides, it's already been decided, no use arguing over it."

"Those two fight whether its useful or not, you'd better just give up, Lithuania," Switzerland said with a disapproving voice. "It's true that they are too loud and irritating, but as long as I have no permission to shoot them..." He glared in warning, deathly sharp daggers at the fighting duo who sensed the bloodthirst wafting in their direction and settled down for the time being, if still ready to fight at the drop of a hat.

"It worked." Estonia raised his eyebrow, amazed.

"Good work comrade Switzerland," Russia patted his shoulder. "We must not fight with each other."

"Don't touch me!"

"Shall we depart already?" China sighed. "We have no interminable amount of time in our hands."

"Agreed," Germany added. "We've decided the pairs and the General will show us the way from here on so get on your vehicles already."

Nine snowmobiles were ready to depart; only their drivers had scattered around the place, all doing various things they shouldn't be doing. When the combined bloodthirst of Switzerland (who wanted the mission over as soon as possible), Germany (who wanted order), Sweden (who wanted to save Finland) and Russia (who wanted everyone to get along) hit all the unfortunates they finally started to gather up and quiet down.

Two people could ride one snowmobile, so pairs were decided mainly so that all those who had in some cases not even been on a snowmobile before or just had no discernable talent with one could go with someone who had and did. Unfortunately this lead to the pairing up of Prussia and Hungary, who ended up as the ones left over and became the only pair in which both passengers could do the driving. The rest of the pairs were less catastrophic. Only Belarus was in a bad mood again because she still couldn't be together with her older brother, but was stuck with Greece instead. He was snuggling closer and closer behind her, and Belarus was getting closer and closer to shoving him off his seat and leaving him behind.

Since everyone was here for the same reason and had themselves decided to come, it was relatively easy for them to keep going, despite the occasional hindrances such as currently Italy who wanted to finish his snow sculpture no matter what. When Germany noted that he'd be left behind if he wasn't on his seat behind the German in two seconds, he moved remarkably quickly however. It took him five and a half seconds, but Germany let that slip. When Italy was finally on his seat they were ready to depart. The sound that came when nine snowmobiles started at the same time was quite impressive and first slowly, but gradually a little faster the vehicles disappeared from the parking lot.

"Russia!" China raised his voice over the engines. "Where are we actually going?"

"Only the General knows," Russia answered loudly. "Hang on tight, comrade China, there is going to be a bump."

After a moment Switzerland drove his and England's vehicle beside them. The Englishman shouted something Russia didn't quite hear, but it got him listening closely enough to hear the next one.

"This city is said to be the hometown of Grandfather Frost, right?" England asked, holding Switzerland's shoulders tightly to not fall off while leaning towards the other snowmobile. "Why are we leaving the town?"

"Velikiy Ustyug is just currently the only place where one can move to the separate dimension where Old man lives," General Winter answered on Russia's behalf. For some reason, he didn't seem to have to raise his voice to be heard. "He has to live in a hidden place, otherwise his home would be a tourist trap."

Switzerland did something that looked like huffing and said something, but the sound didn't reach anyone.

"What?" England shouted back.

"I can so understand him!" Switzerland barked over his shoulder.

At their left, Prussia and Hungary were having another argument but the loud noise of the mobiles did a good job of covering their voices. Denmark and Sweden were driving close enough to the old rivals to hear them, apparently, as Denmark appeared to be participating the conversation. It seemed to England that he was also preventing Sweden from changing course, while Sweden looked like he would gladly be somewhere where he didn't have to listen. England cringed in sympathy.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"We're changing dimensions," General Winter said. Despite that they were all still driving his voice carried to everyone. "You might get a little dizzy and whirly for a while, so please slow those machines of yours down. If you feel like throwing up afterwards, please do it somewhere I can't see. Seeing green bunnies for a few minutes after the transition is perfectly normal. If you however feel anything like your eyes and toes having switched places you're probably allergic to the other dimension and should go see a doctor, which we regrettably don't have anywhere nearby so you'll most likely soon have a fit and die."

The nations were suddenly very silent. Even Hungary and Prussia had stopped arguing. Quite a few switched off their snowmobiles immediately and when the others noticed it, the whole expedition stopped. Italy and Poland looked ready to go back immediately and many others looked very suspicious. Lithuania's expression clearly said 'why me?', and only Hong Kong remained in perfect deadpan. Russia smiled.

"That was not nice, General," he chuckled.

"Okay, you won't die, it was a joke," the General admitted and gave a long exhale, producing a small cloud in front of him that soon started snowing. "And getting an allergic reaction is extremely rare, I've seen only two people falling victim to that."

"Was that supposed to make this easier for us?" England asked rolling his eyes and nodded to Italy who really wanted to go home. Germany patted him to calm him down.

"There's totally a limit what I'll do for Finland," Poland put in, hugging himself tightly. "What could that kind of illness, like, do to my skin?"

Lithuania sighed and shook his head. Since they had already come this far he figured they could as well continue to search for Finland, and Poland was not going to be the one to back out. "Poland. I've heard that crossing dimensions is good for your hair."

"Honestly?" Poland screamed and grabbed Lithuania's waist tightly again. "Let's go then!"

"That was quick," Turkey mumbled to Estonia's ear and the Baltic nodded.

"Lithuania is used to that."

"Wait a moment," Germany interrupted when the expedition was about to start forwards again. "I was wondering about this before, but..." He frowned. "Won't they notice us if we come there this loudly?"

"Now when you mention it," England agreed and they all turned to look at their guide.

General Winter didn't look concerned. "Leave it to me. I'll fly near the castle before you and fill the air with small ice crystals that reflect all the sound back. Since they're small, you can't see them, so the Old man won't notice you unless you're just horribly out of luck."

"Cool!" America exclaimed and nudged Hong Kong in excitement. "I mean... _fucking_ cool! Won't you borrow me those crystals?"

"Or me, I'm more awesome," Prussia suggested with a grin. Hungary glared at him, knowing exactly what was he planning to do with them.

"The likes of you can't control them. Only I can," General answered, crushing all their dream castles of Awesome. "Now, shall we, ladies and gentlemen?"

"Any time," Belarus said. She gave Greece another violent shove in hopes that he would learn to keep his distance.

They started the engines again and the journey continued. They were only just gathering speed when everyone's vision blurred for a few seconds. When it cleared again, the landscape had changed and now instead of a forest they were driving on a wide snowy field.

Turkey whistled but no one heard it. Now that they were driving closer to each other, in the open and slower it was possible to hear a little more though. And no one got sick, luckily.

"Germany! Look!" Italy cheered and pointed somewhere to the field. "It's a green bunny!"

"Er..." Germany muttered and glanced in the direction to be polite only to be surprised. "Oh, there really is..."

"I didn't see that, I didn't see that..." Switzerland chanted to himself.

"Hey, Old Freezer!" Prussia surprised everyone by suddenly shouting out loudly. "Is this the right direction?"

"Freezer...?" General repeated doubtfully, before nodding a yes. "It's a one day trip in that direction."

"Okay!" Prussia cheered, grinning viciously. "Last one out of the field is France's pet until New Year! I'm not gonna lose to you!" Saying this, he already picked up speed and took the lead.

"Hey!" America objected and followed quickly. "False start! Prussia!"

"Ah! That sounds fun!" Italy laughed, jumping up and down on his seat. "Let's go, Germany! Germany!" he demanded. The German sighed and picked up their speed (he really didn't want to be France's kitten for a week). The other pair who was even more desperate not to lose, although both of them had rolled their eyes to the idea of a race, was England and Switzerland. The penalty would have been plenty enough incentive, but it was also Prussia who had declared the challenge.

"Come on, come on!" Poland hit Lithuania's back. "You can't lose! Who knows what France will do to you! I can't let that happen! Go, go, go, go! "

"Yes, yes, I heard you, shut up," Lithuania sighed in defeat and sped up, although they were already a great deal behind. Behind them followed Russia who was laughing again and having the time of his life, China looking terrified behind him. Belarus was immediately behind him, following his brother like a shadow, while Greece seemed to have fallen asleep. Sweden and Denmark were already far ahead. Both had immediately agreed to the race, in fact Denmark had almost fallen off when Sweden had stepped on the gas before he had even fully understood what the Prussian had said. Currently they were already beside Prussia and Hungary, America cursing up a storm in their wake. Everyone was determined to do anything to win.

Almost everyone, anyway. No one noticed that one snowmobile still kept to the basic rules of not driving like mad with a borrowed snowmobile, in unknown terrain, during a secret mission.

Turkey looked at his driver, interested. "You're not going?"

"I. Am. _Not_," Estonia answered very slowly, wondering why even Germany had abandoned him. Especially when he had said he'd come with to keep them level-headed.

"Oh." Turkey shrugged and went back to watching the scenery. At least he could watch the landscapes better. It wasn't everyday you get to go to a different dimension. And France could be interesting.

* * *

A/N: **NuttyEmmy**: http: / / xkcd. com /391/


	11. 11th December

**11/24**

Team Decorations had locked themselves up in Finland's study and Korea had declared the operation a top-secret one. Team Cooking, led by Ukraine, were in the kitchen trying to come up with a menu that would satisfy almost forty stubborn nations who all believed their way of spending Christmas was the real one.

Team Cleaning sat in the lounge, waiting for someone to start speaking.

Austria coughed. "Well then," he started. There was another long silence. He coughed again, this time twice. "First, we need to decide the division of labour. The whole house is for us to clean except for the kitchen, the cooks can handle that, and I don't think we have to go fumble about Finland's attic either."

Iceland smiled briefly. "I could guess he wouldn't be too happy about that."

"Exactly. So we'll concentrate on the part of the house we will probably use in the party." Austria patted his pockets and glanced around the room. "Does anyone have some paper?"

"You can borrow this." Japan offered his notebook. "I use it for my important notes."

"Thank you." Austria sat down in the exact middle of Finland's couch, took a pen from his breast pocket and opened Japan's notebook.

He froze.

"Is there something wrong, Austria?" Japan asked worriedly. When Austria gave no reply, he walked over and waved a hand in front of his face.

Austria snapped out of it. "Japan…" he began very slowly. "Important. Notes?"

"Yes?"

"…Forget it." Austria carefully flipped the page before turning his gaze back to the offending notebook. "I didn't see that. Now, let's divide this up according to the tasks. Or do you prefer dividing by rooms?"

"You know," Cuba answered, already sounding bored. "Whatever."

"Okay. Let's start with the basics then." Austria started making notes.

Norway grunted and massaged the bridge of his nose. _Do I have to do this?_

.-.-.-.-.-.-._  
_

"We need turkey," Australia announced in the kitchen where the nations had gathered around the table to plan the menu.

"Don't we have one?" Belgium asked cheerfully.

Australia snorted at the joke. "Yeah. But one that we can roast."

"...Don't we have one?" Belgium offered.

"I'm _not _going to eat that."

"Add a turkey, Ukraine," Seychelles laughed and the other nation wrote the bird down on their growing list. "What kinds of Christmas dishes are there in the world? I'm fine with anything as long as there's some fish too."

"I'm going to make cougnou!" Belgium cheered. "Ah, it's kind of a sweet bread. Then I'll make a lot of chocolate desserts for everyone! Wah~ I can't wait."

"We need a gingerbread house, a lot of gingerbread and sweets in general and candy canes," Australia listed so quickly that Ukraine had a hard time keeping up with him. He wasn't at all bothered that he was the only man in the room. "And I'll make White Christmas."

"What? The song?" Seychelles wondered.

"Nah, it's a sweet o' mine. Damn delicious, I make it every Christmas."

"Then we need a Christmas cake!"

"And a lots of different pastries."

"Fruits."

"I think many people eat ham?"

"Seafood."

"Chocolate!"

"Beer and wine too!"

"But, listen, we can't make _everything_," Ukraine stopped the others, looking a little worried about their workload.

Belgium grinned wickedly. "Oh yes, we can."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"What?" Korea looked absolutely disappointed. "You haven't cleaned up yet?"

Austria huffed. "There's no way we'd be that quick, you imbecile. You took only half an hour planning your decorations," he noted, fuming righteous disapproval at the people doing such a careless job.

"Ah!" Korea flew his hands up in frustration. "Can't be helped; I'll lend you a hand. Taiwan! Where's the cleaning closet?"

"How should I know?" the other Asian answered. "And don't shout, I'm right beside you."

"We're not done yet," Spain explained quietly to Austria in the meanwhile. "Korea just couldn't stay put so we figured we could as well come and take a look around."

"I see," Austria answered dryly and rolled his eyes.

"France! Find me a closet!"

"Why gladly~!"

"_France!_" Austria warned and rose from the couch.

"It's next to the kitchen," Iceland told the Korean indifferently. "The door on the left."

"Great! Romano, let's go!"

"Like _hell_ I'm coming!"

But he was already dragged out of the room. There had been too much of that happening to him today to his liking. All the other members of Team Decorations followed, except Sealand who firmly believed cleaning was for other People and thus took Hanatamago to go play somewhere instead. Iceland slipped out of the room after Korea's troop as well.

"Where do you think you're going, young man?" Austria asked strictly.

"As a Nordic, I'm one of the guys Fin will complain to if they break something, so I'd better keep an eye on them," Iceland answered truthfully, glancing over his shoulder. "And besides, we need the things they're looking for too, don't we."

"Maybe but–"

Before Austria could finish, they heard a loud crash, heavy swearing that sounded unmistakably Italian and two mixing laughs very much in the vein of Taiwan and France. The combination was all but encouraging. Iceland stuck his head out of the door to see what exactly the others were ruining this time. They had already managed to drop a lamp from Finland's table. To their luck, Cuba had been able to repair it.

"You stupid wretched Korean!" Southern Italy raged, sitting in the middle of a pile of what looked very much like the contents of a whole closet upside down around him. Nothing was impossible to Korea. Romano snatched a rag off his head and tried to fling it towards the snickering Taiwan, failing miserably as the light piece of cloth only floated peacefully to the floor before hitting the Asian. Without bothering to try again, Romano sprang up and started chasing after Korea who had fled upstairs from his rage, laughing his head off, stomping in the stairs as he went.

Egypt lifted the rag from the floor and started dusting the nearby chest of drawers.

"Good grief, you really can't be left alone for a second," Japan said, shaking his head. "You are making even more of a mess, everyone."

"France, if you won't stop laughing soon, I'm going to feed your balls to Norway's trolls," Iceland announced seriously, crouching down to pick up some of the fallen cleaning tools.

"Won't they get food poisoning?" Liechtenstein inquired innocently.

"If you just knew what they eat..." Iceland visibly shivered at the thought. "Egypt, that's used for cleaning toilets."

The African stopped polishing the mirror and looked at the yellow rag in his hands.

Spain sighed. "Maybe it's better you don't tell that to Romano..."

"Umm..." Latvia began cautiously and lifted a mop. "C... can I...?"

"Yes," Austria answered strictly. He was fast losing his temper with this loud lump of nations that should be making this crazy Christmas work, not ruining it.

Latvia squeaked and nodded a few times. "I'll... g-go get some water," he gasped and sprinted towards the kitchen to escape from the aura of the irritated Austrian, grabbing a bucket with him, only to come to a sudden stop at the door courtesy of Ukraine's breasts.

"Oh?" Ukraine startled as the Baltic sank into her chest before bouncing back and flopping down, seemingly in shock. Ukraine tilted her head. She had just been about to see what the ruckus was all about.

Canada caught the falling Baltic before he hit his head on the floor. "Are you okay?" he asked worriedly, supporting Latvia.

"Mm, yeah–" Latvia started before his eyes locked above him and he shrieked in horror. "Polar bear!" And he promptly fainted. Kumajirou tilted his head. Canada sighed.

In the living room, Norway was now alone listening to the racket in the hallway, a hand on his forehead and a nice temptation to leave everything troublesome to someone else poking his consciousness. _Do I really have to do this?_


	12. 12th December

**12/24**

"We'll leave the snowmobiles here," Russia announced as everyone had stopped their engines and for the first time since their brief break for the night; they could properly hear each other. It was early Wednesday morning now and including this day, they only had three days until Christmas Eve. "Does everyone still have the snowshoes?"

It took a while of chaos for everyone to locate the shoes from their piles of equipment and get them on, especially with the presence of Italy and Hong Kong. Italy tried to stand up to put his on and sank thigh-deep into the snow, falling over. Germany and Greece pulled him up, but he only stopped whining about how cold the snow when Prussia asked if he could have the Italian Alps since Italy obviously wasn't using them for anything. Hong Kong, on the other hand, had spent the whole episode just staring at his shoes and then wordlessly started playing tennis with a snowball. America and Turkey soon tried to participate but all they managed was break the balls apart and get themselves wet with the light powder snow.

By the time everyone was kitted up and carrying their share of the firepower liberated from Finland's closet at Switzerland's insistence, the sun had cleared away any traces of night. General Winter had grown bored waiting for the nations to get ready and had long since gone on to count snowflakes again and was more than happy to resume his guide duties. The remaining trip was a short one, and soon enough they laid eyes on the ice castle that was their destination.

"Wow," Poland mumbled, eyes wide. "I so wanna live here..."

"Awesome," Prussia managed to say.

"Guy's got taste," Turkey grinned.

"Looks cold," Greece noted. "I wouldn't like to sleep there."

Turkey rolled his eyes behind his mask and tucked his scarf up. "Then _shall_ we hurry so your majesty's beauty sleep won't be too badly delayed," he offered. Greece glared at him.

"Let's hurry anyway," Germany said and waved his hand for everyone to gather around him. They were still hiding in between the trees, hidden from the eyes from the castle. "Let's split up. We–"

"I'll lead one group," America announced immediately. He was sulking because not only had there been no chance for dashing heroism, he had somehow been the only one to fall over hard with the snowshoes. _He_, the United States of America, had landed unceremoniously on his butt. _Twice_. "England will come with me," he added, grinning.

"What, wait–" England objected immediately, but Germany interrupted.

"Very well. I'll lead another one and Russia–" he stopped and frowned, looking around him. "Russia?"

A loud knocking sound turned their heads towards the ice castle again. There Russia was, knocking at the front door of Grandfather Frost castle, to everyone else's horror.

"What is that idiot doing?" Estonia mumbled and shook his head, fingers pressing his forehead to prevent the upcoming headache.

They held their breaths and hid low on the ground and behind the trees as the door opened. The one to come out was one of Grandfather Frost's guards, a creature crafted of glittering ice, who measured Russia from head to toe. The nation was much taller than him.

Russia smiled happily and looked overall cheerful. "You can't take something that belongs to others," he scolded, waving his finger in front of the other's nose.

A united "Oi..." rose from the hiding nations quietly.

The ice guard frowned at the finger for a while, then backed up and closed the door, leaving Russia standing outside. The nation's smile didn't falter, just turned a little poisonous. "That's not nice~," he chimedto the closed door, but it didn't open again. Russia returned to the others and was immediately faced by a furious German.

"You just announced our presence," Germany growled, two fistfuls of scarf in his shaking hands. "What do you think we've been hiding for until now?"

"But this way it would have been so fast," Russia explained himself innocently.

"But now they know to expect someone, don't you ever..." Germany closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Prussia patted his shoulder encouragingly.

"Well, at least they don't know how many of us there are," Germany sighed. "Anyway, with this many people; we can as well split up and search. Russia, you lead one group, America leads another and I'll lead the last one."

"Let's draw straws," Switzerland decided. He reached for a dead branch and started snapping it in three kinds of pieces. "There's eighteen of us, so six per group. The ones who draw a short one will join America, the ones in the middle will join Russia and the long ones go with Germany. Start drawing so we can get home from here."

It turned out that drawing straws also solved the problem of how they were going to invade the castle: Russia's team was perfect for creating a diversion. Actually, the group itself requested it. They were going through the front door, flashy and loud.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

They were about to split up and get in their positions when Poland suddenly frowned and went over to one tree, wiping some snow off the trunk at his eye level. "What's this?" he wondered aloud, catching everyone's attention. "That there... is that, like, a cat? Well that's a heart for sure. What are these figures? I mean just look at this, is this like some kind of natural art?"

General Winter had turned to look somewhere far in the forest. "Well, I wonder..."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Is this going to be okay?" Lithuania asked like the worrywart that he was. They were hiding in the snowy forest behind the castle. In front of them, after a little clearing, rose the insurmountable wall of ice that their group was going to somehow cross to break in as soon as Russia's team got things rolling.

"Of course it is," he heard an answer from the other side of the tree he was crouching beside. "You gotta like, stop worrying for half a minute, Liet."

"I don't have your optimism," Lithuania whined, shaking his head.

"Calm down," England told him over his shoulder. "Those six −well at least five− will make a perfect opportunity for us to sneak in." He turned back so that Lithuania and Poland wouldn't see him grin excitedly. This was exactly why he had come here. Oh, he couldn't wait...

"Oh come on," America muttered on England's right, shifting nervously in the snow. "We'll get cold here. Why isn't that General helping us first anyway?" he moaned.

"B'cause ya lost at rock paper scissors," Sweden answered truthfully. America let the comment go unnoticed and continued complaining, until England promptly told him to shut up.

Germany's group was in position on the other side of the castle. Now they just had to wait for something to happen at the main gate.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Russia knocked on the door again, but nothing happened. No one was going to open it for him anymore.

"Hmm," he hummed and glanced over his shoulder. "Shall we, comrades?" Without waiting for an answer he turned back to the door and cocked his gun.

"Move," Switzerland growled, flinging out one of their three precious assault rifles and taking aim at the door. Russia stepped aside, smiling, and Switzerland emptied the magazine in quick bursts, carefully aiming on every weak spot the huge double door could possibly have. When he paused to reload, Russia politely knocked on the door again.

"Idiot," Turkey snorted and rammed all his weight against the weakened door to force it open. "No way they'd open it for us anymore."

"That option was out when ya first came here," Denmark continued.

Turkey ducked just in time to avoid the mighty swing of Denmark's darling axe. The weapon wedged deep into the centre of the door and Denmark joined Turkey's renewed attempts to ram the creaking block of ice. Russia followed, and their combined force was enough to push the door open with a loud, grating noise. "For now," Denmark huffed as the door finally gave and they found themselves facing a squad of their host's ice-made guard soldiers. He readied his axe. "We're takin' initiative!"

"You're in the way," came a cold voice from behind him and Belarus flashed by in a flicker of a hem and a deadly sharp glint of metal. She danced past the threshold and sliced the nearest guard with both of her knives. The guard blocked the attack with his own ice blade, only to be sent flying backwards from a kick in the stomach. Belarus glared over her shoulder. "You men are slow," she hissed, then smiled briefly to Russia and offhandedly blocked an attack at the same time. "Please leave it to me, brother, just take it easy."

"So Russia doin' nuthin' is a-okay, huh?" Denmark sounded somewhat offended, but quickly finished off Belarus's opponent with a swing while he was at it.

Turkey hurried to join the fray. Russia discarded his rifle with a deranged giggle and dove in after him, ignoring Switzerland's angry shriek. Switzerland growled at him under his breath as he hung back to cover them, shooting at every guard who had any kind of ranged weapon. The entrance hall quickly became a brilliant, glittering storm of flying ice.

Being made entirely of ice, the guards usually didn't die from one blow but had to be broken down or immobilised before the nations could move on to the next one. Nevertheless the road was cleared quickly, and they wasted no time barging further inside the castle before the guards could receive any back up. Turkey turned back as they were about to head deeper into the halls. "Hey slug! Ya're lagging! Come on or we'll leave ya behind!"

Greece let out a deep sigh and followed, an unused rifle dangling from his shoulder. Why, oh _why_ was he in this group...

* * *

A/N: **Gingerbread Moon**: That's quite a compliment, thank you.

Thank you for everyone else as well. Especially Maya-chan2007 who has faithfully commented each chapter this far, and you our beta, Cheru: you've been unbelievably fast for a few days.

If anyone should be interested, we don't remember how we come up with these three teams of the Rescuers, so asking is pointless. (We planned that part... er, about a year ago?)


	13. 13th December

**13/24  
**

**Sunday, 19th December, evening**

The guard whistled between his icy teeth, cheerful and carefree, on his way up the stairs to have a little break, when he was suddenly blown off balance by a sudden strong gust of wind. He staggered backwards and took hold of the wall to keep himself standing. The wind was gone as abruptly as it had appeared.

_Weird_, he frowned and looked down the stairs for a while, partly expecting to hear something, but there was no sound. It was not that a wind inside the walls was actually abnormal in this castle, but... he could have sworn this one had had horns.

At the bottom of the stairs Finland was trying to hold a sneeze. He had gotten a noseful of invisibility powder due to their mad dash. He understood now why Rascal had immediately sneezed it out earlier. He held his nose with one hand and hung on to Rascal with the other as the reindeer ran quickly away from the dangerous staircase, straining her talents to make absolutely no sound. Finland had used the last of Father Christmas's powder to hide them even a little. The stunt had pretty much shredded his escape plan but oh well, at least he still had a chance to make a new one. Rascal's horns had been left uncovered when the powder ran out, but Finland hoped the guard hadn't seen them.

Rascal stopped once they reached somewhere relatively safe, and Finland could finally sneeze into his sleeve. Relieved, he looked around. From the nearby window, he figured they were on the ground level.

_More stairs_, Finland thought, sighing in defeat. Rascal gave him a look asking him to share what was wrong, and Finland gave the doe's ears a scratch. "Let's find more stairs before this invisibility wears off," he mumbled.

Rascal started walking briskly again while Finland kept an eye on the inhabitants of the place that could show up behind any corner or door. They crept around the corridors again for a while, in search of a staircase. Suddenly Rascal jerked up and started moving restlessly, and before Finland could ask he knew why: a lot of people were coming up from behind them, while at the same time he also heard voices from beyond the next corner ahead. They were trapped. Finland grimaced and looked around for a place to hide: there was absolutely none. The walls were covered with paintings and sculptures on one side, with three windows lining up the other.

With no time to consider other options, Finland grabbed his gun and pointed at the nearest window, shattering the thin pane of ice with a short burst.

The high-powered gunshot was far from quiet even with a silencer and over the sound of the breaking window, Finland could hear the first shouts of alarm. Hoping they'd manage to get out before being sighted, he spurred Rascal to jump through the new exit into the courtyard. The reindeer obeyed swiftly, hopping the window with ease. Upon landing, she momentarily lost her ability to float, the snow below the window billowing around her legs before she jumped back to the surface and galloped quickly away from the window, following the ice wall.

Finland pressed against the furry neck and glanced back over his shoulder. He could still hear the alarmed voices, but he didn't see anyone. That, at least was good, he thought. They'd probably notice the footprints in the snow below the window, but from there on, nothing told where had they headed.

But they had been noticed. The castle was now aware their admittedly lax security had been breached.

Finland cursed under his breath, making Rascal give him another questioning look. He huffed and took a better grip of his rifle. "Rascal... enough hiding, we've been found out already anyway. What do you say we just barge in and do this quickly- why do you look so happy?"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Rascal dashed down the hall at full speed and almost slid into the wall when they came to a corner, righting herself at the last moment. Her hind hooves clattered against the wall and Finland had to push against the wall to keep himself on her back. They had made it inside again through another broken window and were now in search of a staircase. The only ones they seemed to come across only went up, and Finland was getting frustrated before they came across one that let them descend into the belowground level.

At the bottom of the stairs, they encountered two ice guards, who were clearly on duty. Finland grinned darkly: if they were guards, they probably had something to guard, so maybe this was finally the right track. Rascal jumped the last stairs and over the surprised guards, then danced around to allow Finland to gun them down. He was beginning to understand why Rascal had been so happy to hear they were done hiding.

So far a few inhabitants of the castle had spotted them here and there, but as the invisibility was yet to completely wear off they were still nothing but blurred shapes hurrying down the halls. This had been the first time Finland had resorted to violence against them. He couldn't deny he felt bad about it: he knew Grandfather Frost from only folklore and Estonia's teachings, but from what he did know the old man wasn't a bad person in any way. So why would he...?

Rascal shifted restlessly when Finland spaced out for such a long while. They had come to a dead end at a tightly locked door, and although the lock did look simple it wasn't something a reindeer could handle. Rascal grew worried when Finland didn't seem to notice he was needed.

"Oh, sorry," he said as the doe kept fidgeting and tried to nudge him with her horns to catch his attention. Finland hopped down from her back and hurried to open the door. The lock didn't keep him long, and beyond they found a simple square room with a door on each wall. Rascal perked up visibly when she entered the room.

"Well?" Finland asked. "You seem strangely happy all of a sudden."

Rascal responded by making a beeline to the door directly opposite them.

Finland nodded and started meddling with the lock. Soon the other door opened, revealing a closet.

"Your sense of direction amazes me," Finland noted dryly, investigating the little room full of brooms. "Or should this be called woman's intuition?"

Rascal answered by shoving him inside the closet and sitting down on the floor in front of the door, pouting like a child.

"Hey! I thought we were a team," Finland objected as he extracted himself from the pile of brooms. "Okay, sorry. Now let me out."

Rascal stayed right where she was, glaring intently at the nation. Finland blinked slowly. "You're being strangely insistent."

The doe stood back up and forced her way halfway into the closet. Finland finally realised she wasn't looking at him at all but rather at the far wall of the closet. When he saw what she was onto, he had to tackle the reindeer in a hug.

"Rascal, you're a genius!" he cheered quietly and clutched the reindeer closer, pressing his face into her rough fur. "Irreplaceable! Of course that's a smell you would recognise."

The reindeer squirmed in his hold. Finland let go and barged deeper into the closet, pushing the brooms out of the way and revealing a door behind them. Rascal's keen nose had found them the prison.

The lock on this door looked significantly sturdier than the previous ones, so Finland skipped all civilised approaches and simply shot the door off its hinges. Doing that, he managed to trigger an alarm. A loud shrilling sound ran through the castle, alerting anyone who wasn't completely deaf.

"Umm... yeah," Finland just sighed, rushing in before any guards would appear. "You wait there," he told Rascal when the reindeer tried to clear the broom handle obstacle course and come after him.

Behind the door was yet another corridor, this time very short, with six doors at the sides that clearly led to cells. Finland just had the time to think how weird it was there was no guard in there when one appeared, emerging from the wall and attacking the nation with an ice blade. Finland let out a surprised yelp and blocked the attack with the butt of his rifle, barely managing to avoid getting hit. The guard swung for another attack, but Rascal emerged from the doorway in time to tackle him all the way to the end of the little corridor, smashing him to the wall between her horns. In the time the guard took to notice he couldn't move, Finland had gotten his bearings and quickly gunned the ice puppet to pieces. Rascal dived out of the way to avoid the flying shards.

When the guard fell into pieces in front of them, Finland muttered a breathless apology before moving to check through the cells. Only one of them was locked. He stood on tiptoe to reach the little window in the door, but before he managed to take a good look inside a small snout and a pair of little paws appeared between the bars. The creature inside sniffled enthusiastically.

Finland smiled warmly. "You stupid little critter. Can you even imagine how worried we've been?"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Escaping after the whole castle was alarmed to his presence was absolutely futile; Finland came to notice. They had made a good fight of it, but Rascal was finally out of breath and wasn't faring much better. All windows, all possible escape routes, had been blocked by more ice puppets than Finland suspected had even been in the whole castle before he'd accidentally triggered the alarm. He was long since out of bullets. The only way for them to escape now would be to find a way upstairs, ram down a guard and make a jump for the outer wall, but Rascal didn't have such stamina left anymore: not even for herself and their precious cargo, let alone Finland as well. They would simply fall in mid-air and Rascal would get badly hurt if not worse. She would probably have been willing to try anyway but Finland couldn't risk it, no matter how much he wanted them to escape. He pressed a hand against his chest, feeling the small quivering creature inside his jacket.

"I'm sorry..."

They were being lured into a certain direction and Finland had a good hunch what would await them there. Finally the only way for them to run was through a huge pair of doors. Finland sighed and pushed the doors open.

The doors led them to a great hall that in any other situation Finland would have thought breathtakingly beautiful. As he had guessed, this was an audience chamber, and there waiting for them was Grandfather Frost.

Finland smiled to the old man. After all, it never hurt to be polite. "Good evening. I apologise for invading like this."

The old man nodded. "You really should. But I know why you are here. In any other situation, you'd be most welcome."

"Would you let us go?"

Grandfather Frost shook his head slowly. "I cannot allow that."

"Why?" Finland demanded more loudly, asking the question that had bothered him for a long while. His hand flew over the small bump on his coat protectively. "Why do you do this? You shouldn't be a person who does something like this. At least tell me why."

Grandfather Frost gave him a long, lonely look.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Finland leaned his head back against the icy blue wall and sighed. After his encounter with the lord of the castle, he had been locked in a cell beside the one he had broken into earlier. Rascal had been taken away.

Finland clutched the white fur ball closer against his chest and it cuddled in his arms to keep warmer. The nation kept his eyes at the locked door in front of him. Grandfather Frost had sworn to let them go as soon as Christmas was over, but even with the reasons he had been given Finland just couldn't accept it.

"I understand you," he said quietly, petting the small creature in his arms. "I really do. But..." he squinted. "I can't lose."

* * *

A/N: Ah, the drama.

**Doesn't-Have-An-Account-Person**: (chapter 7) Hana? ...We didn't even think about that O_o one learns something new every day I see.

(chapter 8) I'll be waiting for you next review~. General really is a comic relief in this chapter. Also, that's kinda scary, you know. Actually, in old Finnish tradition Father Christmas's reindeer don't fly at all, that's an American fairytale. But I decided to use it in this story because it's better known and more popular ,')

**Maya-chan**: Thank you, love

**funkydelic sid**: This _is _a Christmas calender, you know -.-' It's supposed to be better when the said party is close. But thanks for the compliment!

**SociopathLover**: About Egypt: I so agree.

The hits have passed 3500, favorites 20 and alerts 30 and that makes me overly happy. Thank you everyone.


	14. 14th December

**14/24**

There was no mistaking the ruckus at the main gate: Team Russia was at it and by the sounds of it, enjoying themselves greatly. Well, the louder they were, the better for the other two groups who were now moving ahead with their part of the invasion plan. However, too slowly to someone's liking.

"America!" England objected loudly when he sprang forward, declaring they had waited long enough. "The General is not here yet! Come back!"

"England, wouldn't it be better to quiet down a bit?" Lithuania squeaked.

England hissed a long streak of choice words as he pushed himself up. "I'll go get the idiot back here and re-educate him a bit on the subject of 'sneaking' and 'unnoticed'."

"I'll go," Italy said behind him, and started running after America as fast as he could with his snowshoes before England could react. "Wait!" he shouted after America who had just reached the moat. "England is being scary and it's your fault!"

England could only gape after the Italian, but Poland decided he should be going as well. When even Poland left their hideout, Sweden sighed and rose up, walking to England.

"Hang in thur," he said, patting England's shoulder. Lithuania joined him in an effort to keep the old pirate from surfacing in the Brit's mind and wrecking even the remains of the plan. England muttered one last curse, and they left the cover of the trees to join the others by the moat.

"So," England spat when they reached the others. "We were supposed to do this by General Winter making us a bridge, but now that you guys just couldn't wait for our turn: how are we going to get across the moat, you clods?"

"Swimming~!" Poland answered simply and bounced over to try the water, taking his gloves off.

"Poland, _STOP!_" Lithuania shrieked.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

General Winter had made the bridge behind them disappear and made a very local and thick snowstorm to quickly cover their footprints after Germany's Group. Now he just finished making handholds up the wall for the nations to climb. The result looked very much like a climbing wall.

"Here you go," General Winter stepped out of the way and made way for the nations on the very thin line of snow between the wall and the water.

"Awesome," Prussia whispered. His eyes were sparkling with excitement, and Hungary beside him was in the same state.

"You couldn't have made it easier for us?" Estonia asked doubtfully from the General. Indoor climbing wasn't his strongest point.

"Screw that," Prussia answered, sending the Baltic an enthusiastic glance. "_Awesome_."

Germany sighed and decided to go through the plan once more. "I'll go up first. Prussia, Hungary, China, and Estonia: you follow in that order. Hong Kong," he turned to the last of their group. "You come bring up the rear and keep your eyes open."

Hong Kong nodded and all of them turned to look at Prussia, or rather on top of his head.

"Gilbird," Prussia called and nudged the bird. "Your turn, partner."

The bird chirped and took flight from Prussia's ski cap. He landed on top of the wall far above them and hopped around for a while before he settled and started singing like he had no care in the world. The road was clear.

Germany nodded and grabbed the first handholds to start climbing. When he was halfway up the wall, Prussia started to climb after him. Gilbird had quieted down and still kept watch above them, trying to look as inconspicuous as a small yellow bird in Russian winter possibly could. Germany reached the top of the wall and glanced over it cautiously. Then he flung himself on top of the wall and slipped quickly to a nearby staircase and down to the courtyard, taking cover behind an ice sculpture. Prussia followed soon after.

When it was Hungary's turn to climb over the edge of the wall Gilbird suddenly started singing again. Everyone stopped in their tracks. The two Germans already in the yard ducked even lower when a pair of the castle's inhabitants passed by. Prussia pressed deeper into the snow and watched in silence as two sets of icy foots went by.He bristled with excitement, eyes sharp and muscles tensed ready in case they were noticed, but he didn't move an inch yet. When the guards passed by without incident Gilbird sang out once more and at the edge of the wall Hungary finally crawled up and slid on the other side of. She landed beside Prussia, dealing a blow on his awesome mood when the snow she disturbed was tossed on him. Prussia was prepared to give her a piece of his mind but thought better of it when he happened to glance at his brother.

China cleared the icy obstacle course with ease, but they had another close call when it was Estonia's turn to climb up. He was already on top of the wall when Gilbird started singing and had to dive for the closest cover, which meant going back over the wall. He managed that only to bump straight into Hong Kong, who was on his way up, and they would likely both have fallen if not for General Winter blowing a strong gust of icy wind to help them from below. Oblivious to their hardships, the others waited for the coast to clear as they had before. It was only afterwards when China wanted to know the reason for Hong Kong's sudden foul mood that they were treated to the full details. By that time the General had already left to help America's group and they were sneaking inside the castle.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Hey. Jes' how many o' these things does that old guy have?" Denmark asked.

"I don't know, but he can revive them as he wishes, so does it make a difference?" Russia said cheerfully, making space for Turkey in their little back-to-back ring.

"Well, just great, innit then?" Turkeysnorted.

"But," Switzerland yelled. "If they can be revived, there's no need for guilty conscience."

"Like you'd have one."

"You men really are no help!" Belarus shrieked between slamming her knife into the throat of one enemy and nailing another between the eyes with a bullet. "Stop babbling and be of some use to brother!"

"Shall we?" Turkey inquired, raising his sabre.

The others grunted in affirmative, and they launched back into the forest of deadly ice.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

At the same time when Russia's team battled against the ice guards, Germany's team sneaked down a corridor from one room to another and General Winter finally reached the impatient America. Team Cleaning had finally gotten their own quest well underway. Austria hadn't given Korea permission to start decorating yet, but he wasn't listening.

"I'll keep an eye on him," Taiwan promised in a whisper when Korea had ran away from the living room to build a slide beside the stairs because "going down stairs was invented in me!"

Austria sighed and massaged his temples. "Please do. And stop him from doing that slide of his."

Taiwan chuckled and went after the problematic nation, leaving Austria to manage his headache. Latvia passed her in the doorway as he came in to report the status of the cleaning upstairs.

"Um..." the he hesitated, squirming under Austria's expecting gaze. "Er... The thing is... so we, um... well..."

"I see," Austria answered calmly, only slightly irritated that Latvia, Japan and Egypt weren't ready yet. He was happy that there was at least someone who listened to him, not Korea. "Put up some pace. There are many things to do after that."

"Yes," Latvia nodded immediately. Actually it wasn't that they weren't working hard, it was rather that they were working too hard and weren't getting anything done because of that. Both Japan and Egypt were borderline anal-retentive and could spend an hour cleaning, say, a single table. Latvia himself, on the other hand, wasn't always sure what it was he was supposed to be doing and wandered between different tasks, not getting anything ready.

The Baltic left, and Austria eyed around for the next victim of his own mission (nagging to anyone about anything they were currently doing) when a loud crash, a happy yell and a frustrated cry sounded through the house.

"Sounds like Spain found Romano," Iceland said from the window where he was currently polishing the panes.

Austria sighed deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose, pushing his classes up out of the way. He was really starting to lose his patience, and there wasn't much of that to begin with.

"Austria~!" France called, dancing into the room. "Cleaning Finland's study is done~!"

"Don't shout, I can hear you," Austria snapped, but added. "Good job."

France purred and came closer. "Are you having a headache, mon chér? I can cure that for you." He leaned in and took Austria's right hand in his own, blowing cool air on his temple.

Austria jumped and backed away, pulling his hand free. "Go clean the toilet if you have leisure time."

France laughed. "But I don't, Austria my dear. I'm busy making you feel comfortable." He nudged closer again. "Come on. A good kiss will make you feel fantastic."

"You have no _right _to bring your lips near mine!" Austria shouted.

France stopped abruptly. Austria was frozen in place, the Frenchman only about ten centimetres away from his face. He didn't understand what could have stopped his attempted seduction when usually nothing did, and even though he prayed that this uncharacteristic show of restraint would last, it was also vaguely scary. France straightened and stepped back from him, to the bewilderment of both Austria and Iceland.

"Okay," France said. He leaned closer, lips almost touching Austria's ear. "I shall have to do something about that," he whispered softly and then left the room without another word, whistling carelessly. Austria was left torn between not wanting to know and thinking that he probably should, for all their safety. He coughed.

"So the study... has been cleaned," he said cautiously, trying to regain his composure. "By the way, Iceland," he continued, turning to the Nordic who was doing his job rather alone compared to what Austria remembered ordering. "Where's Norway?"

"Summoning trolls. He'll be back soon," Iceland answered and grabbed his bucket to move to the next window.

Austria hoped his face wasn't showing his current feelings too clearly, otherwise his dignity would have been lost. "...He's what?"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Back at Grandfather Frost's castle General Winter was wondering why he did this in the first place.

"That was, like _ow! _That's _majorly_ cold, like, like _liquid ice_!" Poland stuttered in shock, holding his hand after Lithuania had pulled him away from the moat.

An incredulous silence greeted this exclamation. England tried to say something, gagged, then tried again. "Nobody. Say. A word."

The General shook his head. There should be a limit to the things he did for Russia.


	15. 15th December

**15/24**

"Oi, France!" Korea shouted from the stairs. "Where are you going?"

France pulled his coat collar up and smiled to the Korean over his shoulder as he opened the door. "I'm going out to buy some... _important_ supplies." He smiled and went out the door with a wave.

"Hm," Korea huffed, looking slightly offended. "You could at least tell me. _I'm_ the Commander after all. Don't ya agree, Taiwan?"

She smiled in reply, but truth be told she was a bit worried about France's plans. Maybe Austria should be informed. "Of course. He should tell us about his plans."

"Exactly. By the way, I got this great idea." Korea forgot about the Frenchman for a while and took his fellow Asian's hand, dragging her into the living room. "That," he pointed. "It's so blank and bare that it's _screaming _for some decorations. That's why I thought," Korea let go of Taiwan's hand to gesture with both hands as he explained. "That if we make a hole _there, _and fill it with Christmas flowers, which by the way should be bought, we could make this place _much _more lively. And..."

"Korea," Taiwan interrupted. "I like the idea, really, flowers would be nice, but are you sure Finland wants you to make a hole on his living room ceiling?"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Finland's sauna wasn't very big but it looked comfortable enough, and the smell was nice. Cuba drank in the details with interest. He had never really been to a sauna before, but Norway had informed them that Finland would rain unholy retribution on them if he didn't get his Christmas sauna, celebration of peace and love be damned, and thus Cuba had landed in cleaning duty. He was entertaining the idea of actually joining the Finn when the sauna was heated, and he knew he wasn't the only one. Though he honestly wondered how they were going to arrange turns for everyone, as there was no way the room could comfortably seat more than five people.

_Well, we'll think of something,_ Cuba thought while he scrubbed the seats forcefully. He had rolled up his sleeves and pant legs, and the room was almost warm enough to shed his shirt altogether. This was actually quite fun in its own way. He could take it easy as they weren't in a hurry yet, he hadn't done this before so it was a new experience, and besides he had good company.

"Cuba? Where did you put the-"

"Dammit America, when did you come back?"

"Eeeehhh? No, I'm–! Not with the brush! Eeeee–"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"You have to have Christmas ham," Iceland patiently tried to explain to Ukraine, their head chef. "Denmark probably wants duck, but we can just ignore him."

"Um..." Ukraine hesitated. "We have turkey?"

"No," Iceland rejected. "Ham. Just get it."

"Oh, okay," Ukraine gave in and flipped her list out from under her apron to write down the new dish. "Anything else?"

Iceland looked a while to the ceiling, trying to think of something all the Nordics would appreciate. "Glögg."

"What?"

Iceland rolled his eyes. "Mulled wine," he tried another phrasing.

"Oh."

"Listen, why don't you just open Finland's computer and check the Internet for this stuff?" the Nordic asked, with a voice that told he might want to go home already.

"I tried, but it asks for a password," Ukraine defended. "Belgium is trying common ones now."

Iceland blinked. "They guy named his pooch Bloody Flower-Egg. Good luck guessing his password. Though in case he's trying to be clever you could try 'salasana'."

"Umm... Okay?"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Sealand!" Austria objected, glaring at the mess in the hallway. He had just come from telling Cuba and Canada that one: they were taking too much time, and two: no, breaking windows with a brush while chasing each other was _not _proper conduct. Now he had already found the next person who needed straightening out. "We are cleaning here. Go play with your robots elsewhere."

Sealand whined. He had just gotten the king of Jerkenglandia to admit he was the biggest jerk of them all and knight Bamse had been right all along, and then Austria had to come and disturb his balanced mind with some rubbish.

"And since you're here and obviously have nothing important to do, stand up and help us with the cleaning," Austria continued, eyeing Sealand and his playground with distaste.

_See? Utter rubbish_, Sealand thought, shaking his head first and then nodding once, knowingly. _The adults just don't get it, do they?_

"What kind of response is that?" Austria frowned when the boy shook and nodded his head in turns.

"That's why you adults are hopeless." Sealand shook his head again. "I'm doing the real job here, you are the back stage personnel. It's in my hands whether the world stays at the mercy of an awful jerk or not and you interrupted me just before my moment of victory. If the world is doomed, it's your fault. As your superior, I have the heavy responsibility to punish you–"

"Sealand."

"What?" the micronation asked. At first he was just irritated that he had been disturbed, but it morphed into raw fear when he met the eyes of the obviously furious Austrian. Sealand squeaked. This was nothing like his Papa's glares. This one meant something.

"Go outside," Austria said very clearly and lowly, hands itching for a wooden ruler.

"Y– y– yessir!" Sealand saluted and ran away quickly, stumbling on his feet and socks slipping on the floor Liechtenstein had just washed a moment ago. Knight Bamse was left on the floor, wondering where could his commander have fled at such a crucial hour. One glance at his right told that the Commander had obviously made a tactical retreat when Jerkenglandia's final trump card had suddenly been revealed.

Still under Austria's glare, Sealand returned briefly to collect the toys before he retreated again. But this time knight Bamse had his back.

Norway came down the stairs in time to see Sealand go out of the front door and the last traces of Austria's murderous aura disappear into a nearby flower vase. He had just finished his business with his trolls and was coming back to work.

"Really, I was wondering if we could make it before the 25th but..." Australia said from the kitchen doorway. "...As long as Austria is in that mood; I think everyone will do their job."

"I don't think Korea will listen," Austria sighed. He was really growing tired.

"It's the 24th," Norway reminded Australia strictly. "The celebrations start at Christmas Eve."

The Aussie scoffed. "According to _what_?"

"Our Christmas traditions."

"You Nordics are too early!" Australia threw his hands up. "You're still a minority, so we'll go by the rest of the world's tradition in this."

Norway stomped down the stairs. "This is Finland. To respect the host country we'll do it our way."

"But that's just weird," Australia frowned. "And you're moving our deadline up."

"Ye said yerself that Austria's aura is givin' us some workin' mood," Norway countered. "And I've already call'd back-up fer–"

He was stopped by a heavy whack on the head, courtesy of Austria. Australia received the same treatment simultaneously.

"We will celebrate on both days," Austria told them, adjusting his glasses. "I don't think we shall grow bored with this guest list. And do you really think the likes of Prussia get enough alcohol in one day?"

"Good point," Australia admitted, massaging the top of his head. "But you didn't have to hit me."

Austria glared at him and Australia quickly retreated behind the cover of the kitchen door. Austria rubbed his temples again. "This is really getting to my nerves. What should I do with you people...?"

"Drink some tea?" Norway offered, walking past him to go look for Iceland.

Austria was about to answer, but they were both startled by a mysterious scratching sound that started in the living room at that moment. The nations shared a look and hurried over.

"Korea!" Austria shrieked when he saw what was going on, gaining the attention of both Asians in the room as well as Liechtenstein who was unfortunate enough to be present. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I second that," Norway said, frowning at the saw in Korea's hands.

"What?" Korea asked, not understanding what was wrong this time. He had just been about to go through with his Christmas flower idea.

"'What?'" Austria repeated. "'_What?_' Korea! I don't know what you are planning but you will absolutely _not_ continue from there!"

Korea glanced at the white ceiling where there already were a few scratches made by the saw, neatly along the circle he had drawn to keep the hole round. Making sure he didn't fall off the table in the process, he turned to pout at them. "But I'm not ready yet."

"Good," Norway answered, inwardly wondering what Finland would say if he saw this.

"Fix that," Austria ordered, pointing at the brown scratch.

"But–"

"No buts!" Austria turned to glare at the other nations in the room. "Taiwan! You said you'd keep an eye on him. And Liechtenstein. Why didn't you two stop him?"

"Well, he wouldn't listen," Taiwan smiled cheerfully. "And the idea was interesting enough so I thought it would be okay."

"I have glue ready so we can fix it after this is over," Liechtenstein offered her defence with an innocent face.

"You... you just..." Austria was about to lose it. "We're guests here, do you remember that? And Liechtenstein, you can't repair a ceiling with glue. And..." Austria shook his head. "Am I the only sane person here? What am I going to do with you? Honestly..."

"I tol'ye ta drink tea," Norway reminded him.

"That's–" Austria raised his eyes to the Nordic and startled, stopping abruptly before he even properly began. A pink, frilly apron was floating behind Norway's back, a little above their heads. It proceeded to the corner of the room, pulled out an equally pink feather duster do wipe away the spider webs in the corners of the ceiling.

Austria actually laughed a little. His knees buckled and he collapsed on the sofa, pulling his legs up and hiding his face. "I..." he almost sobbed. "I _can't_..."

Norway frowned, staring at the direction of the floating apron. "I said the aprons'd be a bad idea," he said, disapproving. The troll in the corner looked over his shoulder, ceasing the cleaning for a while. Norway's frown deepened. "Besides, ye didn' get tha' from Sve's, didje? I tol'ye to stop stealin' his stuff." The troll just shrugged and continued cleaning. Norway didn't like being ignored, but let that be for now when the trolls had at least agreed to help them clean. He glanced around the room that had suddenly fallen very silent.

Korea was looking at the apron with sparkling eyes. Liechtenstein's serene expression hadn't wavered even slightly, save for a little worried glance to Austria's direction at one point. Taiwan looked mostly confused.

Norway left the room quietly and returned after a while with a hot cup of tea. He took Austria's hands and forced his fingers around the cup. "Drink."

Austria took the cup silently and pressed it against his chest, staring into nothingness.

Norway sighed. "Korea. Stop that."

"Tch..." Korea let the saw fall from the ceiling.

* * *

A/N: Translation from Finnish: 'salasana' means 'password', so Iceland is joking. It would probably be imbossible for them to decipher Finland's password, really.

Thank you for wonderful comments again.

**SociopathLover**: "I'm pretty sure France is getting mistletoe..." What gives you the way, dear? *innocent* And yes: it is odd. But you wouldn't be the first one who had gone a bit... weird after making a contact with Hetalia.

**Maya-chan2007**: That's actually making me a little sad, Team Germany is my personal favourite -.-' Well, it's only just began.


	16. 16th December

**16/24**

"I have to admit," England whispered as they sneaked around the castle, trying to find a way in. "Those idiots make a good diversion." They hadn't come across anyone so far, only hearing some voices from inside the castle a few times. "This is surprisingly easy."

"Look!" Italy cheered, loud enough to startle everyone. Half of them gave Italy a warning glare and the other half immediately went to scanning their surrounding to see if anyone had heard them and if yes, where could they hide. Currently nowhere.

"What is it, Italy?" Lithuania asked quietly, turning back to see what was the matter.

"Look," Italy repeated, smiling. "I made a snowman."

Sweden grabbed the Italian's shoulder firmly and gave him a very disapproving look, which Italy mistook for a murderous look and would have screamed aloud if Poland hadn't jumped backwards in the line and shut his mouth just in time.

"That's it, good boy," Poland shushed and motioned for Sweden to move away a little before things got worse. "Really nice, honestly. But we're, like, on a mission now so make those at home, 'kay?"

Italy nodded a couple of times briskly and Poland let him go. Nothing loud came out. England and Lithuania sighed in relief.

"Hey guys," America whispered loudly from the corner ahead. "I found a way in. So shall we get out of this snow for a change?"

"Mn," Sweden admitted immediately and poked Italy to stand up and move in line.

England reached America quickly and stopped beside him to wait for the others. "Is it safe?" he asked, glancing around them.

"Yeah, I didn't see anybody," America said, patting England's head. "Don't be so stiff. I'm here, so it's going to be okay. If they notice us, I'll protect you."

"Mind your own business," England growled back and slipped towards the door America had found. He followed, and soon came Lithuania, Poland, Italy and Sweden until they were all inside the castle, slipping into any possible hiding places in the room they had entered while America went to inspect the other door in the room to see where it led. He cracked the rood open, then immediately shut it again to dash back into hide.

"Someone's coming!"

America dove under a bench near one wall and they waited with bated breath, shifting in their hideouts to make sure they weren't visible, waiting for the sound of footsteps to go past. But then the door opened.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Is this... a kitchen?" Prussia wondered, peeking from the crack in the door. "Whoah, I don't know what that is, but it sure looks delicious..."

"Are you going in or not?" Hungary asked impatiently behind him.

"No," Prussia whispered and silently closed the door. "There was someone there. We'd better go the other way."

"Really, there seems to be no place we can go without being noticed," China muttered.

"You didn't think this was going to be that easy, did you?" Hong Kong muttered lowly in his ear.

Prussia was surprised. "Woah, that must be the first thing you've said for ages. I didn't even know you spoke in long sentences."

The Asian gave him an indifferent look.

Ahead of them Germany swore breathlessly, hurrying back from his scouting trip to the next corner. "Someone's coming, everyone hide!" he ordered in a whisper.

"Here." Hungary motioned them towards a door on their right. Everybody hurried to follow her sign and found themselves stuffed into a closet.

"Dammit, woman," Prussia huffed quietly and pushed Hong Kong's foot away from his neck. "You did this on purpose, didn't you?"

"Certainly not," Hungary answered, pressing herself against Germany's chest to fit in. Germany looked slightly uncomfortable, though that may have been because Estonia was using his head for a footrest.

"Quiet now," China hissed from the floor. "If we get caught after all this, I am going to raise your import tariffs through the roof."

Gilberd chirped cheerfully on Hong Kong's head, which had happened to be the highest perch. Hong Kong took the chick's beak between his fingers to shut it up.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Of course the guard noticed them when he came in. There was no way six nations could hide perfectly in a relatively small and simply furnished room. The ice creature knew something was awkwardly wrong immediately after opening the door and stepping in.

England mouthed a curse and grabbed his gun. Before he could move any further, America had his own gun out and shot the ice guard through the temple. The bullet pinged high into the ice wall behind the guard and he turned slowly to stare at America, who was only now clambering up from under his bench.

When the enemy didn't fall after taking a bullet through his head, America's frost-reddened cheeks paled considerably. Before either of the two could move, Sweden jumped from his hiding place behind the door, swung it shut so the guard couldn't escape and fired another shot through the ice with his own gun. The second shot was still ringing in the air when Lithuania appeared from under the table and landed a heavy kick on the side of the twice pierced head. It fell in pieces and the guard crumbled to the floor in a pile of ice.

England sighed and came out from behind the curtain. "You can be so noisy, you know that?"

"And scary," Italy added, coming over to poke the ice curiously.

"Le's go," Sweden urged, already peeking out the door to see if the road was clear. They slipped into the corridor and had finally properly entered the castle. They were set to continue the invasion plan.

After a moment America stopped them and pointed at a staircase ahead, squinting. "That staircase," he began, pausing for dramatic effect. "Is suspicious."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Hey. Russia."

"Yes, comrade Switzerland?"

"Don't touch me. Didn't you say Finland had an assault rifle when he came by your place?"

"That's right! Why do you ask?"

Switzerland stood up, holding a rifle. "Rk 95 Tp. Commercially known as M95. Finnish military issue. Silencer. Empty cartridge. And, I will point out to the idiots present, no Finland attached."

"...Shit."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"This is..." Germany looked around. "The stables?"

A horse whinnied beside him, like it wanted to say 'yes'. Germany pushed the animal's muzzle away to keep it from eating his hair, Lord knew that it was already messy from all this but he didn't look _that _much like hay, thank you.

"Grandfather Frost uses a troika to travel, right?" Hungary tapped her chin, thinking. "In that case this makes sense, doesn't it?" She turned to smile at the dapple-grey mare beside her, offering the creature her hand. "But aren't they pretty~!" She hugged the horse when it turned out to be friendly. "And healthy. One wouldn't think that in this cold."

"But it's warm here," Estonia noted, looking around with interest. "Maybe they keep this place warmer for the animals."

"Hey," Prussia called suddenly from the other end of the stables. His tone told he truly had something to say this time and he was quite surprised about it too.

"What is it?" Germany asked and came beside his brother, only to stop, just as astonished. "That's a..."

Rascal squinted. She had already been kept here for days and now when someone not made of ice came to see her, they didn't even know what animal she was. The reindeer had been tightly secured with a leash around her neck and she had nothing to do but lie on the hay in her stall and brew her bad mood.

"Could that possibly be Finland's reindeer?" Estonia wondered and nudged China away to see better.

Rascal's mood spiked and she started nodding briskly to the man with the glasses who looked more intelligent than the others.

Prussia jerked backwards. "Wow, it understands you." He shivered when the reindeer gave him a glare and then hopped into the stall. Rascal followed his steps closely, doubting. "Hey, little one," Prussia greeted, crouching down beside the animal. He almost got himself pierced on her horns for that.

"You fail," Hong Kong noted behind him.

"We came here to look for Finland," Hungary explained and crouched beside Prussia. "We'd like to free you. Can you let us do that?"

Rascal's eyes sparkled with excitement in reply. Prussia laughed and reached his hand forward to take the leash away. "Be a good deer now and don't pierce me, 'kay?"

He was freeing her, so Rascal held back from killing the man for the comment. She didn't keep her disgust from showing though, and Prussia noticed it.

"What?" he asked, stopping his hands. No, he was not worried he would be pierced by those horns; he was way too awesome for that. Rascal turned her muzzle up away from the man, pouting. Prussia didn't get what he had done wrong. He was supposed to be awesome with animals! "What?" He repeated. There was no way he could make up with the cute fluffy thing if he didn't know what was wrong!

"_Rein_deer, Prussia," Estonia whispered from outside the stall. "_Rein_deer."

* * *

A/N: Fun fact: Finland cannot legally own that assault rifle.


	17. 17th December

**17/24**

France opened the door wide, letting a cold wind inside as he stood in the doorway, eyes darting in search of an appropriate victim. "Ah! Norway and Iceland! Come and lend me a hand, mes amis, be so kind."

Both Nordics shuddered, but France put it down to the wind. They had been unfortunate enough to be in the entryway when France decided to return.

"A hand for what?" Iceland asked doubtfully. Neither of them moved an inch.

"I ordered some Christmas drinks for all of us," France explained calmly and gestured them to follow him outside. "I want you to help me carry it inside."

The brothers followed; still on their guard. Norway called Ukraine to the hallway and asked her to find some space for them to place the wine. Ukraine simply nodded and Norway followed the two others outside. Iceland was already staring at the amount of wine France had loaded in the back of Finland's car.

"May I ask?" Iceland said. "Who's going to drink all this?"

"We, silly," France wagged a finger at him for asking such a pointless question. "There are quite a few of us here, remember?"

"True 'nough," Norway admitted, though even taking that into consideration it was quite a lot. Yet if they were going to stay a longer while, it would come in handy to keep certain people satisfied. _And knowing France, all this stuff is exquisite and expensive. And French, _Norway thought when they grabbed the first heavy boxes and started hauling them to the house. They piled the boxes in the hall for the time being so Ukraine could see how much space she needed to find. With the three of them, the work didn't take long. While France went outside to park the car, Ukraine and Belgium disappeared into the kitchen and so the Nordics were left alone to the hallway.

Norway sighed and ripped one box open, taking out a bottle. "Dom Pérignon," he read the label slowly. "Who's gunna pay fer all this?"

"France, I hope," Iceland answered. He found a receipt tucked in one of the boxes and winced as he skimmed it. "France, I _really_ hope." Then he frowned and started counting the boxes, only to frown a bit more. Norway was busy reading the labels.

"Weird..." Iceland mumbled, eyes shifting between the list and the boxes.

"What is?" Norway asked, lifting his gaze from Château Rieussec, 1er Cru Classé, AC Sauternes, Bordeaux, France.

France came back in and started to shed his winter clothes. "Oh, finally home. Mon dieu, it was so difficult to find mistletoe in this unromantic backwater. And the florist's French was atrocious!

Norway snorted. "Ye were lucky to happ'n across a florist who took French in high scho-_Mistletoe?_" he shouted as his brain caught up with France's words.

France paused with his scarf dangling halfway off his neck, genuinely confused by the reaction. "Oui. Is there a problem?

"I _knew_ it." Iceland checked the list in his hands once more, horrified realisation dawning in his eyes. "Extra box."

"Now listen, ye–" Norway started objecting to France, but was cut short when Iceland threw away the wine receipt and grabbed his brother.

"Norway. Just _run!_"

France was left alone at the door when the two Nordics escaped. A few interested faces peeked from the kitchen and living room to see what was going on.

France shrugged. "Now what could possibly be their problem?" he asked aloud to no one in particular. He finished taking off his outdoor clothes and went straight for the most precious box, humming softly. The green treasure hiding inside was just waiting to be put into good use. France took one branch in his hand, caressing it. "This is where it gets fun," he smiled.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Ukraine chewed the end of her pencil, trying to come up with a good way to feed everyone today and solve the problem of all the drinks that suddenly needed to be stored. She had heard Iceland and Norway stomp past the kitchen on their sudden escape and had been given a report about the mistletoe situation by Australia, who thought this all was very funny, but she wasn't really concentrating on any of it. As head chef of the house, she had to make sure everyone was fed.

_Let's see_, she thought and tapped the end of the pencil on her chin. _The first day we ate anything we could find from Finland's cupboards, yesterday I made borscht and then there's that pasta Romano made to avoid the borscht... _Ukraine glanced towards the fridge. _There's a little bit of that left... Romano will probably eat it._

"Whatcha doing, boss?" Australia asked, peeking over her shoulder. He backed off when he noticed the paper was empty. "France wants to know where he can make Spain put the drinks."

"Cellar," Ukraine answered absentmindedly, waving her hand. "Don't bring it in the kitchen."

"Yes ma'am," Australia saluted. He was about to leave when Ukraine stopped him.

"What would you like to eat today?"

"What?" Australia tilted his head, turning back.

"Noodles with salmon sauce, warm vegetables and green salad or fried potatoes, pasta salad and tomatoes?" Ukraine listed, again snapping the pencil to her chin.

"Well~," Australia pondered. "I'll eat any of that."

Ukraine turned to smile at him. "Okay." She stood up and ran out of the room. "Taiwan! Taiwan! Could you make some rice for me?"

"Rice?" Australia repeated, quirking an eyebrow. "What happened to noodles and fried potatoes?"

Seychelles shrugged. "You'll eat it anyway."

"True."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Maybe here," France pursed his lips, holding the mistletoe branch above the front door. He had recruited Spain and Egypt to carry the rest of the wine for him so he could concentrate on more important tasks. He nodded to himself. These little darlings needed to be in place as soon as possible so everyone could enjoy their company.

The sound of his own name shook him out of his musings and he turned to see Korea coming down the stairs.

"What is it, Commander?" France smiled and let his hand fall.

Korea came up to him and took his hand that held the mistletoe, probing the branch with interest. "Why are you hanging vegetables everywhere?"

France smiled very, very wide. He was always so happy to educate. "You see, mon fils," he began, shook Korea's hand off and raised the green treasure above their heads, snaking his other arm around the Asian's hips. "When two people stand under one of these..." He leaned very close to Korea's face. "...they can do this."

Two minutes later Korea was bright red, stuttering and out of breath. France didn't call himself the country of love for nothing. "I- I want one of those too!"

France laughed and handed him the one he'd been holding, happy to comply. He gave Korea's cute butt a little squeeze as he offered his thanks for the pleasurable encounter. Korea swatted his hand away absent-mindedly and France could have sworn he mumbled something in the vein of "sure, my pleasure" before he quickly excused himself and sprinted away, holding his newfound friend pressed against his chest.

France was proud of himself. Already he had an ally. He hoped the others would notice as well how ideal this was or at least some of them, because if everyone did he wouldn't have any fun chasing his victims. France's smile turned into a smirk. "Now, Austria," he glanced around in a case said nation happened to be in earshot. "What was that about having a right to kiss people?"

Iceland had been chased away from his refuge in the sauna by the sight of a half-naked Cuba. He returned in time to witness Korea happily meandering away with his precious magical 'vegetable'. "You are a dangerous man, France," he sighed.

"Why thank you," France nodded absently, drumming a new branch against his hand. "Now where's Finland's bedroom?"

"Up the stairs, second door on the left," Iceland replied before he could stop to think. France was off in a heartbeat, tossing Iceland a lecherous grin as he went.

"Now we will all have to wonder, mon chér…" he said in a mockingly loud theatre whisper, "_how did you know that?"_

Iceland stuttered for a good comeback long enough for France to disappear up the staircase.

"Wait, France− what are you going to do up there? _France!_" When the other didn't stop or answer Iceland rolled his eyes and ran after him. However dangerous France's current company was, if Finland's bedroom was turned into a mistletoe jungle; he would never hear the end of it.

Meanwhile, Korea had found what he had been looking for: Taiwan, who was checking through a storage room to see if Finland had a rice cooker, which would have made things considerably easier for her. She hadn't found one yet and was definitely going to give Finland a note about that later.

"Taiwan?" Korea began, approaching hesitantly.

Taiwan raised her eyebrows. The sight of Korea so irresolute was definitely weird.

Korea edged towards her, clutching the precious branch like a flower. Taiwan watched with polite interest as Korea, blushing furiously, tried to bring himself to lift the branch above their heads and kiss her. Finally, when nothing seemed to happen, she smiled, reached up and kissed him herself, leaving Korea unable to use his branch in the end. Taiwan took his wrist and guided their hands up, the mistletoe still tightly in Korea's fingers. A little late, yes, but what did that matter.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Norway entered the living room and looked around. Spain had finished hauling the wine downstairs and was stretching contently in front of the window, basking in the winter sunlight. Austria was still huddled on the couch, a new mug of tea in his hands. Iceland had taken to bringing him more teacups as he mechanically emptied the old ones and then refused to let go until he was given a new one in return. Norway shook his head sadly and turned away.

"Spain?" he asked. Spain turned to look at him, arms still stretched up high. "Have ye seen Ice?"

"Yeah," Spain answered and turned back to the window, finally letting his hands fall. "He went into the bedroom with France."

Norway paled. "...What?"

* * *

A/N: _Borscht_ is Ukranian soup that's usually made with beetroots. It' good =)


	18. 18th December

**18/24**

"This," America said, "is better than a video game. No, this is better than _paintball_."

"Will you take things seriously?" England hissed.

"I _am_ taking things seriously!"

"We're doomed," Lithuania sighed.

America laughed at him, brushing ice from his hat. They had just come off from a brief but frantic scuffle with two guards who had materialised from the walls the moment they reached the bottom of the staircase. The second one had finally been dispatched by a combination attack from Sweden and England, showering America with shattered ice and prompting an enthusiastic whoop from him that England quickly stifled with his hand.

America had dubbed the two guards Giant Mooks and, frankly, his video game terminology wasn't far off. He had also called dibs on the inevitable boss battle, but graciously allowed the others to assist him with any further mooks they came across. It seemed that the actual inhabitants of the castle had taken refuge somewhere as soon as Russia's group barged in, since the only people they had encountered so far were the occasional ice guards.

They continued along the corridor they had found at the end of the staircase America's Herodar™ had marked as an unidentified not-really-flying not-actually-object, but totally worth checking out. The corridor wasn't very long, and soon they came to a locked door.

"This is definitely suspicious," America exclaimed, a little too loudly perhaps but that went unnoticed by everyone, except England, Lithuania, Sweden and Poland.

"Oh? Here I thought it was a door," Italy noted innocently. England rolled his eyes. How long he could take this, he wasn't so sure.

"Well, it is not like our problem anymore, so shall we?" Poland pointed to the hole in the wall where a moment ago had been a locked door, until Sweden had decided he needed to get to the other side of it.

_How did he...? _England started, but decided that _how_ was ultimately meaningless as long as they now had a way through. He followed Lithuania and Poland through the hole. America came soon behind him, alternately complaining about how he should have been the one to go first and assuring England that he had their backs covered. Sweden was already inspecting the room they had entered: a simple, unfurnished square with four doors, one on each wall.

America raised his finger. "This room is–"

"Suspicious, yes, we know. Use your so called hero sense for something intelligent for a change and help us find Finland," England scoffed.

"We should be cautious when we open them," Lithuania suggested, glancing at the door on his left. "One can never know what–"

"Brooms, huh. So uncool."

"Poland!" Lithuania pleaded, almost teary-eyed.

But Sweden was more interested. He was at Poland's side with a few brisk strides and examined the contents of the closet, frowning in concentration. He leaned closer with a thoughtful grunt.

Italy chuckled. "Sweden acts like Germany who's buying some of those porn things of his."

"That's somehow a very disturbing way to describe a person inspecting a broom closet..." Lithuania mumbled, a hand over his face.

England coughed, trying not to blush. "But honestly, Sweden, what are you doing?"

"Fin's 'n here," Sweden mumbled back end took a step inside the closet. Poland frowned and pushed his way inside as well.

England snorted. "Listen, we all know you want Finland to come out of the closet, but–"

He stopped, sensing the glare Sweden was giving at him. This time it wasn't his daily facial expression, he was truly glaring. And that said something.

"He's 'n here," Sweden repeated emphatically, letting his glare disappear. Completely failing to notice how his companions were paralysed in terror, he pointed between the forest of broomsticks. A faint light shone from the end of the closet. "Ther's 'nother door."

Sweden was about to reach his hand for the lock when Poland suddenly grabbed his hand.

"Oh come on, that's like totally a trap." He pointed at the door. "The moment you open it, like, everyone knows we're here."

"But it is weird enough to investigate it more closely," England noted. "So we have to go inside anyway."

Poland sighed. "Oh please, you can't be that stupid. You honestly think Russia's "Grandpa" walks through this _closet_ every damn time he wants to go gloat at his prisoners? There's obviously another way in."

"Oh, do tell me more," England answered, rolling his eyes again.

"Duh," Poland said, sounding offended for being underestimated, and pointed at the room around them. "It's somewhere here." When the others only looked baffled, he threw his hands up in frustration. "There's like never many ways into a prison. Otherwise they'd have to, like, guard many exits. If there's one door here, then the other one's here too, because this is where they stationed guards."

"How do we know it's a prison?" Lithuania asked, reminding them that they actually didn't.

"Did you look where that light came from or not?"

Lithuania frowned and passed Sweden at the closet door to go in and inspect the source of light more closely. Looking through the tiny window in the door, it was obvious they were really looking into a prison. Cell doors weren't the easiest things to miss. America, interested as well, shoved Sweden out of his way and came to look.

"Whoah," America had to say when he pushed his nose closer to the bars. "A prison in a broom closet? Why didn't I invent that?"

"Korea probably did," Italy smiled.

"Okay, so how do we know Finland's in there?" Lithuania said, insisting that they should think twice before entering.

"He is," Sweden confirmed immediately.

"Okay. But how do we get in?" England said.

"If we believe Poland, we'd better try to find that other door," Lithuania suggested.

"Well good luck. We killed the guards, no one's going to notice that anyway, so take your time," England noted.

"We just barge in heroically!" America decided and grabbed his gun.

"Rejected."

"We've ta hurry."

"Oh duh, honestly? I didn't notice."

"Well, we could try to get in there and escape before anyone comes down to see who triggered the alarm."

"You think there's, like, no guard inside there?"

"Why can't we barge in heroically?"

"Because it's rejected!"

"Umm, if you're done arguing, I opened the lock already so we can go in now..."

"Well great," England answered curtly before it struck him. "_What?_"

Italy held up a picklock and then pointed at the open door. "I said: it's open and we can go in now if you're done here."

Everyone just stared. Italy stood there, looking quite innocent for someone who had just proved instrumental in a jailbreak.

"Italy." England closed his eyes and listened to the blessed silence of no shrieking alarms. "You're irreplaceable."

"Ve?"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Finland woke up to a loud sound he couldn't quite make sense of at first, but what his sleepy brain soon recognised as gunshots. He jerked a little more awake and frowned. The small window on the cell door opened soon and he could see the shadow of someone looking inside, but even squinting he couldn't see who it was before it was already gone. For a while his ears only caught sounds of something like a key turning in a lock, but not quite. Then the door creaked open.

Before Finland could even think about standing up and perhaps defending himself if necessary, something tall and heavy had sprinted across the cell and almost fallen over him. Two strong arms found their way around him and Finland could only stare over the other's shoulder, absolutely dumbfounded.

"Sve?" he asked, too shocked to be sure what to think.

Sweden mumbled something into his neighbour's shoulder that no one else could hear, but Finland's answer told them enough.

"Stop calling me your damn wife!"

"You two, like, never stop doing that, do you?" Poland asked from the door.

Finland opened his mouth to say something probably unintelligent, but he was cut off by a suddenly furious Brit. "Damn it, Finland! How much trouble do you think you've caused us?"

"Chill out, old man." America patted England's shoulder. "It was you who wanted to come."

"Why..." Finland started, still wrapped in a tight hug from Sweden and his eyes widening in surprise as he saw Lithuania smile and Italy wave at him from the door. "Why are you here?"

"Stupid," America answered. "We heroically came to save you, obviously. You– huh?"

Everyone followed America's suddenly averted gaze. Something small and white was wiggling its way out from the very thin gap between Sweden and Finland. First came a sharp snout, sniffing the air with interest, then the rest followed little by little. It was a small fluffy animal, ice-coloured and blue-eyed. It made absolutely no sound as it wriggled its way to freedom from Sweden's crushing hug. Once it finally plopped out, it tried to sprint towards the nations in the doorway, only to come to an abrupt stop when the long tail it had obviously forgotten stayed trapped between the two nations. Pulling furiously to free itself, the creature finally grabbed the tail with its forepaws and tugged with all its might.

Finland followed its futile efforts for a while and then pushed Sweden away a little, not caring about the clearly objecting grunt he got for it. The end of the tail, a puff of fur almost the size of the creature itself, finally came free. The strange animal rolled a few somersaults backwards with the sudden momentum, regained control after the third one and immediately scurried over the ice floor to America, running unbelievably fast for something with such small paws.

America yelped as the small white unknown something ran up his pant leg in circles. He raised his hands instinctively to shake it off, but before he could do anything the creature had found the way to his shoulder and pressed its warm pink nose to his cheek. America relaxed slowly, astonished but suddenly not a bit worried about the weird thing on his shoulder. It looked like it was purring, though no sound came out. A warm glowstarted spreading around it as it made itself comfortable on America's shoulder.

"Finland," England said very slowly. "What is that?"

"Oh, it's Christmas," Finland answered immediately, his tone as casual as if he was discussing the weather. He seemed oblivious to the disbelieving silence that followed before England found his voice.

"...Come again?"

* * *

A/N: To our dear beta-reader from the co-author: I had a sudden semi-violent bout of inspiration and rewrote most of this chapter after it had already been edited. Sorry, Cheru!

And from the author to everyone: Thanks for the comments everyone. If you wouldn't write those, I'd probably give up with this, the story is really taking its toll of me right now. I try to get it done for you dears. And now you know what's that creature that had some minor appeareances earlier. Did anyone guess it beforehand?


	19. 19th December

**19/24**

Iceland hurried up the stairs to save Finland's bedroom from being renovated with an armful of mistletoe. He banged the door open and barged in."France, what are you–"

"Ah, you decided to join me," France purred behind him. Iceland whirled around and froze at the sight. France was leaning on the wall behind the door, idly twirling a mistletoe branch. He closed the bedroom door with an ominous click. "Excellent..."

Icelandturned pale. "You planned this."

France smiled like a cat who trapped the canary in the cream storage, and moved in to kiss his prey on the side of the neck. "And you fell for it..."

France raised the mistletoe above their heads and claimed Iceland's lips in one suave movement. He kept it brief, but lingered close as they parted. Iceland took a long shuddering breath of their shared air. "Okay, now you got what you wanted. So let me–"

"Oh dear, no, mon petit!" France looked shocked. He reached over to pick up a second branch from his supply. "You must help me determine that there are no defunct branches in this box."

Iceland's expression turned horrified and the next second he screamed so loudly that there probably wasn't anyone in the house who didn't hear. "NORWAAAYYYYY!"

Downstairs, Norway, who had just heard Spain's fateful information, jerked up and quickly dispatched a troll who was dusting the flower vase for the sixth time that hour, to save his little brother's virtue in Finland's bedroom. The troll obeyed and teleported upstairs with a pop, just in time to snatch Iceland away from France's third kiss.

France tilted his head at the large, vague figure that blocked his way to his precious test partner."Hm? You must be one of Norway's troll? I cannot see you very well but…" he shrugged, approximated the troll's location and planted a kiss on what Iceland could properly see was its nose. The troll blushed brightly, wibbling over to the corner and started wiggling in embarrassment.

Norway barged in. "Iceland! Are you–" He spotted the troll cuddling herself in the corner. "_What?_"

"Norway~!" France greeted, spreading his arms as if inviting the Nordic into a hug. "So you decided to join us too?"

Norway stuttered angrily and stared at the arms that had only a while ago done who knows what to his little brother. Before he could say anything, however, said little brother grabbed his arm for the second time that day.

"Whatever, just _run!_ And don't look back!"

France was left alone in the bedroom, with his precious mistletoes and a still wibbling troll for company. He measured the green branch in his hand and smiled. "You just wait, my dears." He walked over to Finland's haphazardly made bed and set the mistletoe on the pillow. "I've decided, you know," he told the troll conversationally. "No one is going to escape these little darlings this Christmas."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Norway's and Iceland's mighty escape was ruined by Seychelles, who grabbed the younger brother when they passed the kitchen door and dragged him inside.

"Iceland, would you like to join me and Spain in the union to fight for fish dishes at Christmas dinner?" she cut right to the chase as she pinned Iceland against the wall. When it came to fish, there was no mercy.

"Um..." Iceland managed to say before Norway tugged his brother back to himself. Iceland had been seduced quite enough for one day, thank you.

"I said we're not going to fill the table with just fish," Ukraine whined behind them just as Seychelles was about to object to Norway's interruption.

"Why not?" she turned to ask instead.

"Because that's not right," Ukraine argued back, shifting her weight restlessly. Norway and Iceland promptly lost all interest in the conversation as gravity did its work around her chest area.

Japan chose that moment to appear in the doorway. "Has anyone seen Egypt?"

"Yes," Belgium answered, looking over her shoulder from the counter where she was making chocolates. "I sent him to buy that ham Iceland wanted a while ago."

Japan answered, but was overshadowed by Australia who had so far been engrossed in his own work beside her. They bumped elbows in the cramped kitchen as he straightened suddenly.

"Wait, wait, wait. You sent _Egypt_ to buy_ ham_?" Australia asked.

Belgium frowned at first, but then realisation light up her face. "…Oh."

Australia sighed, set down his rolling pin and wiped his hands clean on the nearest available surface, thus ending up with floury handprints on his jeans. "I'll go after him."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Norway's floating aprons had made quick work of almost all cleaning and the nations had mostly moved on to cooking, doing the decorations or, in some cases, messing up everything that had been cleaned once and getting in everyone's way. A proud member of the last group was Romano, who had set his mind on the task of finding the Christmas presents that Finland had gotten for them, given that it was clearly the most important task at the moment. He had managed to avoid doing much of anything for the preparations so far, only ran away from Spain, France or work; whichever was the closest at that moment.

"Would you mind?" France asked, frowning slightly as Romano busied himself with turning the contents of a closet upside down. He had already done that to another closet beside it and apparently wasn't going to clean up, again, after he obviously would find nothing, _again_.

"Shut up!" Romano barked back and slammed the door shut forcefully. This fruitless quest was really getting on his temper.

France sighed slightly but decided to follow up with a warm smile. "Then maybe you'd be a good boy and give big brother a kiss?" he offered, raising a branch of mistletoe to his nose like it was a rose.

The look Romano gave back was anything but warm, and grew more terrified with every step France took towards him. When France was only two steps away, Romano snapped out of his stupor with a long girlish scream that made France jump slightly. He ducked under France's raised arms and fled from the room, almost colliding with Liechtenstein in the hallway.

The girl looked after him, baffled, and then gave France an inquiring look.

France shook his head and raised his arms. "I honestly don't know what's with him."

Liechtenstein gave a meditative hum and entered the room, looking at the mess Romano had made. She didn't look happy with it, but she had been raised better than to complain.

France followed her expressions with quiet interest, and smiled when she turned away from Romano's handiwork to return his look politely. Maybe there was something that could rescue his mood from the dive it had taken due to Romano's less than ideal reaction. France reached out a hand and took Liechtenstein's chin in his fingers with almost reverent gentleness. Very slowly, he raised the mistletoe over their heads.

Liechtenstein looked clueless for a moment but when France leaned a bit closer to see her reaction, her eyes started shining with excitement.

"Oh, how exciting!" she squeaked. She took a few deep breaths to calm her blushing and made sure there weren't any wrinkles on her dress, then closed the distance between the two of them to give France a small and friendly peck on the lips. She retreated immediately and turned away, blushing worse than ever but seemingly happy with herself. After a moment she turned back, gave France a small curtsy and scuttled away in embarrassment.

France stared at the empty room. His hand had fallen to his side, but now he raised the mistletoe branch in front of his face, very surprised by the turn of events. "I was going for the cheek, but..." he mumbled, wondering just how well this particular branch _worked_. "Switzerland is going to kill me if he ever finds out..."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Latvia sat on Finland's front steps, breathing the cold air deep. He had done a round through the house, taken a new cup of tea to Austria and then judged that no one actually needed him anywhere right now, so he had slipped outside for a while, to take a break in the fresh air. The rescue squad had commandeered most of the warm clothes in the house, but Latvia had wrapped himself in what remained to keep himself extra warm. He wouldn't have to go back inside for a while.

Sealand was playing nearby. After Austria had chased him out he had ventured back inside only briefly, usually to get himself warm again with the special hot chocolate that Belgium made especially for him. Currently he was playing with Hanatamago, jumping, ducking and rolling in the snow.

"Hey!" Sealand shouted loudly and commandingly. He emerged from behind yet another mound of snow and hit Latvia with an expertly made snowball. "Quit daydreaming and come to play for while!" he ordered, already making a new projectile. "Can you call yourself a nation like that?"

Latvia smiled and got a snowball to his shoulder as a reward. He winced automatically and shifted away. Sealand grinned victoriously.

"The winner is the one who gets most hits," he declared. "Back is one point, chest is two and if you get the head you win by default. Give me all you've got! Oh, and if I win, I'll get to lead your country for a while."

Latvia stood up and scooped a handful of snow. "May I name a price as well?"

"Of course. I'm feeling benevolent today after all," Sealand nodded. "So let's say the winner can name his price."

" If I win," Latvia said, forming the snow into a ball. "I'll have your share of Belgium's special hot chocolate today."

"What?" Sealand shrieked. "That's not fair! Name something else!"

"No."

"Cheater!" Sealand objected and a second later, dove away from a snowball thrown at him.

"What makes me a cheater?" Latvia asked, picking up the materials for his next weapon.

"The chocolate is innocent! Don't bring it into a battle between nations!"

Latvia couldn't answer before a well-aimed snowball hit him on the side of his head, making him shriek. Sealand let out a similar yelp at the same time. Unnoticed by them, a third person had decided to participate.

"Headshot wins, was it? Good. Now that you both lost to me, haul these dishes inside, and don't break anything. Ukraine complained they're running out because the menu is so huge so I took some with me. Sorry for being late."

Latvia scrambled up, massaging his head at the spot the snowball had hit. "Monaco?"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Excuse me, but," Liechtenstein began, raising her hand. "Aren't we missing something crucial?"

"What?" Korea frowned.

"A Christmas tree?"

A long silence ensued, before Taiwan decided it was time for someone to voice what they all thought about. "Whoops?" she said experimentally.

No one disagreed.

* * *

A/N: No worries, I like this story too much to abandon it. It's just about finishing it in time.

**Anonymous**: ...No?


	20. 20th December

**20/24**

"Come again? England asked slowly.

Finland sighed and tried to detach Sweden for a while. "Like I said, it's Christmas."

"Like... meaning...?" Poland pried further.

Finland frowned, not sure how to explain, but to his luck he didn't have to as Italy did it for him.

"So it's like us, isn't it?" he concluded and stepped forward, offering his hand to the creature. Christmas instantly hopped from America's shoulder onto his hand then quickly climbed its way up to the top of his head. "It's so pretty~," Italy laughed and raised a hand to pet the soft fur. "I want a pet like this." Christmas's fur ruffled in pleasure at Italy's gentle touch.

"Wait a minute!" America objected, kind of offended the creature had left his shoulder so easily. "A personification of a _holiday_? That's just absurd!"

"That's right. Is that even possible?" Lithuania seconded him.

"Mn," Sweden agreed.

"Well, duh," Poland snorted, giving them a wry look. He had quickly found his way to Italy's side and was scratching Christmas behind its little ears. "You're _countries_, remember?"

"Then why haven't I ever met Thanksgiving?" America asked, still in disbelief.

"How should I know?" Finland answered dryly and stood up, finally shedding Sweden off his neck. "Anyway, if you came to save me, shouldn't we be going before some guards find out what's going on?"

"Oh, no worries about that, we have a class A diversion," America regained his cool and flashed him a double thumbs-up. "Russia can be trusted in this case."

Finland's jaw dropped. "...Russia?"

"Yeah. He's making quite a show upstairs with his team," America told him as they filed out of the cell.

"Den's with 'im," Sweden mumbled and patted Finland's shoulder. "They'll do a'right."

"I'm a bit worried about Greece, though," Lithuania said, climbing over the brooms as they made their way out.

"No need," England told him. "There's no way he's going to look bad in front of Turkey."

"I wonder how Germany's doing~," Italy hummed, playing with Christmas's tail as it swung in front of his eyes. "I'm sure he's having fun."

"Now wait a moment!" Finland interrupted the chitchat and raised his hand. "Just how many of you came here?"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Warily, Germany stuck his head out from the room they had hidden in to avoid being noticed. They had left the stables a while ago and were back to wandering around the halls, trying not to get caught. This far, the strategy had worked perfectly: the only ones that could count as an enemy that had noticed them were the horses back at the stables.

As soon as the reindeer had her leash removed and the stable door opened for her; she had quickly run off, to the nations' joint bewilderment. There had simply been no stopping her. After taking it easy in captivity for a few days, she had regained her powers and ran on the top of the snow again, defying gravity with practised ease. She had dashed straight across the small back yard of the castle, step by step up in the air, and disappeared behind the ice wall.

"I think I can guess how Finland came in," Prussia had noted, irritated because the reindeer had left so suddenly. She had taken off without the slightest expression of thanks to the awesome nation who had set her free. Not even a quick petting! Not that Prussia, or Hungary and Hong Kong for that matter, would have been excited about the opportunity to perhaps even ride a reindeer, not at all. But there was nothing more to it; the reindeer was gone. China had suspected it probably had enough of hard labour and had run away to avoid more.

Now Germany gave them the green light and they exited the room they had quickly chosen as their next hiding place. It had happened to be a bathroom, only the latest in their line of unfortunate hiding places. They had already gone through not only the cramped closet, but also among other things a bath (either ice cold or boiling hot water everywhere), some kind laboratory filled with different powders (the reason why Estonia's hair was currently green and Hungary's mood foul) and a cold-storage room ("Why on Earth is there something like this in here?" China had hissed, icicles dangling from his nose.)

Their guns stayed in bags and holsters, unused. Unlike America's team, who couldn't stay hiding, and Russia's, who didn't even try, Germany had kept his own firmly in spy mode, and therefore they were yet to make any violent contact with their enemy. Prussia and Hungary thought it was a damn shame, but they too stayed silent after receiving a glare each from Germany for voicing their opinion. The only time their cover had come dangerously close to breaking was when Estonia had tripped loudly in the laboratory just when a patrol of guards had been passing by. They had been saved by the fact that Hong Kong turned out to be a consummate cat imitator. When the guards had actually fallen for that, they had concluded their enemies weren't actually that smart.

"West?" Prussia whispered as they sneaked down the corridor. "Do you know where we're going?"

"How could I?" Germany answered, frowning slightly when he noticed Hungary slipping slightly out of formation again. "Do you see me holding a map?"

"So what's the plan?" China asked.

"For now, we'll continue invading deeper inside." Germany turned back to look ahead. "And hope we can be of use."

"In other words, wander aimlessly without being caught, right?" Hungary summarised.

"Great, just what I needed," Estonia huffed and fingered his still greenish hair. "Finland's going to have to pay this back double."

"Hey," Hong Kong said suddenly. He stepped out of his hiding place; disregarding Germany's glare, walked to the window and pointed outside. "There."

The rest of the group came closer. From this third floor window, they could see straight to the main entrance of the ice castle. Prussia clutched the window frame and grimaced. "Shit..."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Russia," Denmark huffed, clutching his axe tightly. "I ain't denying this's been fun, but I'm gettin' tired, man."

"Same here," Turkey breathed heavily, raising his sabre once more. "And Switzy's gonna run out of bullets soon."

"Brother." Belarus appeared beside them and so closed the four-person circle.

Russia nodded. "Find Greece and Switzerland. We should retreat for a while."

"I'm here," Greece called from a nearby alcove. He gunned down one guard and joined them.

"Then Switzerland?"

The answer was a brief burst of bullets on their right, accompanied by an irritated but healthy-sounding battle cry.

"Sounds like he's okay," Russia smiled. He was starting to get tired as well.

Once Switzerland fought his way back into the group, they began their retreat. It wasn't easy; they had attracted quite a horde of the icy soldiers during their diversion. At least that part of the plan had been a roaring success then, the rest was up to the others.

"D'ya think they'll find Finland?" Turkey asked Denmark, who was running behind him. They had managed to shake off the guards for a moment and were looking for a place where they could rest a while and regroup.

"If Sve can't find 'im, no one can," Denmark answered. "He's got this kinda like a Fin Detector in his head."

"If they haven't found him after all we did for this, they're going to regret it," Switzerland growled, breathing hard. "A lot."

"Shh!" Belarus hissed from the head of the group, bringing them to a halt. She raised one of her trusty knives in front of her face, ready to strike. "Someone's there again. Leave it to me." She sneaked quickly to the next corner and when the footsteps she had heard were near enough, jumped out and swung her knife down to kill the next guard getting in their way.

However, her opponent dodged and grabbed her wrist in the nick of time before the blade sank home. Belarus raised her eyebrows.

"Damn!" Poland squeaked, staring at the blade he had managed to stop an inch away from his eye. "That's so dangerous, you know! Can't you, like, _look_ before you try to murder people?"

"Tch," Belarus just spat out and pulled away. "I missed."

"Hey!" Poland objected just when the rest of Russia's group came around the corner to see what was happening.

"Oh, it was you guys," Russia greeted and waved his hand. "Hi there~."

"Nyaaa!" Denmark screamed, threw his axe aside and jumped past all the others, zeroed in on a certain someone.

"Nya?" Finland repeated incredulously. He was currently taking a ride on Sweden's back, not that he had asked for it, thank attacked them both with a tackle hug, making Finland give an unmanly squeak as Sweden almost toppled over.

Denmark kept them upright, which didn't really improve the situation that much because he used the opportunity to get his hands all over Finland, as if confirming he was really there. Sweden objected with a low growl when his hands lingered too long in Finland's hair, but Denmark couldn't have cared less.

"You li'l... stupid... troublesome... mad... weird... _cute_..." he kept rattling off some of Finland's characteristics, squeezing in as close as he could.

"Okay, okay, nice to see you too," Finland muttered. He was fast reaching his limit of personal space invasion for the day, and he really didn't want to hear what other adjectives Denmark was going to attribute to him. He swatted Denmark's hands away and tapped Sweden on the shoulder. "Sve, let me down already."

"Mn."

"Seriously, I can walk!"

Sweden finally relented and Finland slid down, grateful to be walking for himself for a change. Really, there wasn't even anything wrong with him in the first place! Though maybe he could forgive Sweden and Denmark a _bit_ for overreacting, just this once. They remained close to him like a pair of guardian angels, provided that guardian angels came in Viking flavour. Finland could feel them stiffening when Russia stepped closer and petted his head.

"What a problematic little one you are," he said.

Finland scowled. "I don't want hear that from you."

"Listen you," Switzerland growled and pointed his gun to the Finn's nose. "You'd better be _damn _grateful."

"Switzerland?" Finland greeted him in surprise, not caring about the gun all that much. "You're certainly the one I'd never have expected to do something like this. But yes, of course I'm grateful," he added with a smile.

"I never expected it either," Switzerland answered dryly.

"What's this thing?" Greece asked, poking the white creature that was purring silently beside his ear, its fur ruffled contentedly. It had been hitching a ride on England's head for a while, as his hair made a very good nest, but this new person looked very comfy too.

Finland sighed: he had heard enough 'whats' and 'excuse me's' for one day. "Important, not harmful, long story," he simply said, trying to push his fellow Nordics away from his personal space. "Just keep it for a while, it seems to like you."

The two groups joined forces to make their way out as soon as possible. With thirteen nations they had no real hope of staying hidden, and given that America's team was still in fresh fighting shape, no need for it either, so they charged through the halls, rooms and corridors at double speed. At the same time, Finland was trying to answer all their questions as well as ask some of his own.

Firstly, no one had seen Rascal, which worried Finland a bit though he didn't think Grandfather Frost would do anything to the reindeer.

Secondly, America babbled everyone's ears full about the personification of Christmas and even if it did save Finland the trouble, he still had to hear the chorus of disbelieving cries that followed. Poland reminded them again that personified nations weren't really ones to talk.

Thirdly, no one had seen Team Germany.

Then finally, someone managed to voice maybe the most important question.

"Why did he catch you? Actually, why did you come here in the first place?"

Finland pointed at the carefree little creature who was taking a ride on Belarus's shoulder, apparently fascinated by her long hair. So far she hadn't threatened it once, just raised her eyebrows when it started glowing more brightly.

"I came to save Christmas," Finland said. "If Christmas was in this dimension when the celebration came, no one would be particularly interested to have any parties. Didn't you feel that?"

"Now that you mention it..." America recalled the dust gathering on his floor and the lonely Coke in the fridge.

"That's why Father Christmas asked me to bring it back home," Finland explained as they ran along, still miraculously undisturbed by guards. "Christmas would be practically ruined without it. You wouldn't _guess _what that would do to my economy."

"Or mental health," Denmark added, teasingly.

"Yeah," Finland admitted without a second thought.

"Ah! When we started planning a rescue and someone -who was it again- started talking about 'saving Christmas' we suddenly felt better," Russia noted from behind him. "Is it because of the idea of bringing Christmas back?"

"I guess so."

"So why did that old guy take it?" Turkey asked when they reached the large front doors, still open after the damage that had been dealt to them. He could hardly believe their luck, getting out here without encountering a single guard.

England, who was running at the front, came to an abrupt stop. "We can always ask the man himself."

"What?" America came up beside him.

Suddenly the lack of guards seemed obvious: they weren't needed anymore.

Waiting for them to come out of the castle, standing on the snowy yard, was Grandfather Frost.

* * *

A/N: The hits have passed 6000 and only four chapters are left. The story is more popular we ever thought: thank you very much for that. We hope you read and enjoy the story to the end.


	21. 21st December

**21/24**

Grandfather Frost stood before them, majestic in blue velvet and luxurious white fur, and not the least bit intimidated by the numbers he was facing. He sighed slowly. "You nations really are stubborn. And so unnecessarily violent."

"I don't know about 'unnecessary'," England said. The snow grated beneath his feet as he shifted tensely. Beside and behind him, the others stood still. "We only came to get back one of our own."

"And I did knock first! But you wouldn't let me in," Russia reminded him.

The old man shook his head. He avoided Russia's eyes. "I... rather hoped you could be persuaded to give in and leave. But now that it has come to this I must interfere, as much as it pains me. You cannot be allowed to leave."

"'Pains you'?" Finland repeated, shaking Denmark off his sleeve and stepping forwards. Grandfather Frost raised his eyebrows upon being confronted by his prisoner. "It only _pains you _because you know it's not right! Okay, I understand you, in principle I do, I already told you that. But−"

"What's 'not right'?" America asked, suddenly a bit more serious. "You're keeping us in the dark here, Finny."

"I believe we would all appreciate some details," agreed a loud voice from their left.

The nations and Grandfather Frost all quickly turned their heads to see the speaker. Lined up in the other end of the snowy yard was the last missing team of nations.

"Just how many of you came here?" Finland hissed in surprise.

"I told you 'a few'," America whispered back.

Germany trained his gun on the old man. "Now, can we discuss this calmly like civilised people, past encounters being what they are? I would be very willing to hear the story behind this."

Grandfather Frost had raised his eyebrows again, watching as Germany's group cautiously came closer, all guns aimed at him. "Now I am surprised. I was informed of twelve new intruders. How did the six of you avoid detection?"

"I wouldn't put us in the same category with that lot if I were you. Big mistake," Prussia grinned, pleased with the fact that they were the only ones who hadn't been found.

"Let's stick to the business at hand," Germany said sternly. " Why did Finland come here and why didn't you let him out?"

"Before that, Comrade Germany," Russia smiled. "You can put down your guns. They won't work. You too, Comrade Switzerland."

Germany hesitated. He didn't really want to give up the security of having a line of fire to their opponent, but when even Switzerland relented with a disappointed huff, he motioned for his team to lower their weapons.

Before anyone could resume the conversation, their eyes locked onto a white ball of fur that slid down from the cover of Belarus's hair and sprinted over the snow towards Germany's team.

"What?" Germany asked.

"A ferret?" Hungary suggested.

"More like a weasel," China said.

"A bunny?" Prussia offered hopefully.

"Mouse," Estonia corrected.

"Christmas," Hong Kong said and crouched down to offer the creature his hands. Christmas climbed up his arm, jumped and attached to his face, swishing its tail contentedly.

Finland was surprised. "How did you know?"

"A guess," Hong Kong shrugged, taking the fluffy creature by the base of its tail to keep it from smothering him, and raised it to the top of his head.

"That's the personification of Christmas," England explained. He had gone back to keeping an eye on Grandfather Frost. "This old man stole it and Finland came to bring it back so our celebrations wouldn't be ruined."

Estonia looked at the creature, his eye twitching. "Illogical..." he mumbled and then coughed. "Well. Then why did he take it?"

Grandfather Frost didn't answer, just looked quietly at Christmas making itself comfortable in Hong Kong's brown hair and waving its tail in front of his nose like trying to hypnotise him.

"Answer!" Switzerland barked angrily.

"It's no use, Comrade," Russia said. "If Grandpa decides we won't leave here, if he decides we don't need to know, then we won't."

"He wanted to help New Year," Finland told them, keeping his eyes on the old man.

"New Year?" Russia repeated, tilting his head.

"Yes," Grandfather Frost finally spoke. "Yes, that is correct. Compared to Christmas, New Year is withering away."

"What do you mean 'withering'?" Germany frowned. "We celebrate New Year every year. And Russia and some of the other Eastern Europeans don't even celebrate Christmas that much, but New Year instead."

"I said compared to Christmas," Grandfather Frost repeated. "How many films are made about New Year every year? How many songs are sang every year just for New Year? How much time and money do people spend planning and celebrating New Year? How many of you Western countries celebrate New Year like the Eastern Europeans, even if they celebrated Christmas like you?"

Denmark frowned. "Well compared to Christmas..."

"Yeah, yeah," America said. "That's true, sure. But that doesn't give you the right to steal Christmas!"

Grandfather Frost sighed. "I... was going to let it go after Christmas. I hoped if people didn't get a good holiday mood for Christmas, they'd try to take it back at New Year. And perhaps they would remember that happy New Year's Eve next year."

"So for that you'd ruin everyone's Christmas?" America said. England silenced him with a glare.

"Does New Year accept this plan?" China asked. "And where is it now?" He glanced around, partly expecting a new weird creature to pop up somewhere.

The old man shook his head. "I haven't told it. But it would probably object. It's in Japan now."

"What's this about people not getting in Christmas mood?" Hungary asked curiously. "Does this cute one being away have something to do with that?"

"Exactly," Finland explained. "As long as Christmas is in this dimension, no one will–"

"That's not exactly it," Grandfather Frost interrupted. "This dimension is merely a pocket in space. Whatever qualities it has is under my will. This is the house of New Year, and I am its master. If I decide Christmas has no power here, it has none."

"Then would you make it stop?" Russia asked.

Grandfather Frost looked genuinely surprised. "Russia?"

"At Finland's house all the rest of the nations who have heard about this are readying the place for us to spend Christmas together," Russia explained, and Finland's eyes widened a little. Russia stepped forward to stand between him and Grandfather Frost. "If these little ones..." He nodded towards Christmas and Finland, "...are away, it would make us very sad. Me too."

Grandfather Frost stared long at the nation who was one of those to always wait for his coming, every year. Then he looked away from them all.

"Are we..." Finland began, hesitating. "...Going to spend Christmas... together?"

"Didn't we tell you?" Lithuania smiled. "Everyone's at your house preparing a good Christmas party for when we get back. Thanks for having us, by the way."

"I see," Finland said quietly to his shoes before raising his gaze to Grandfather Frost, giving him a genuine smile. "Well then, since we'll all be in the same place, shall we go and continue the party at Russia's for New Year? Everyone together," he offered. "You could call New Year home and bring it to party together with us this year. That way we'd celebrate both of them and make both of them happy? How does that sound?"

Grandfather Frost met Finland's eyes in silence. He glanced to Russia, who smiled at him softly, before turning to look at the small, white creature who was now utilising the natural camouflage provided by Prussia's hair. Prussia was wiggling with joy for its cuteness, despite his best efforts to stay focused.

When Christmas noticed the old man's gaze, it hopped down and dashed over the snow, leaving behind a string of small pawprints that quickly faded back into pristine whiteness. Grandfather Frost raised his hand to offer it a seat when it started climbing up his long coat. Christmas made its way down his arm and spun around a few times before settling on his gloved palm. Then finally it raised its blue eyes to meet his.

Grandfather Frost suddenly looked very tired. "You really are... a very stupid creature."

Slowly and hesitantly he raised his other hand to pet the soft fur. Christmas bristled happily and bloomed in a bright, golden glow.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Oh," France said, standing at the sauna door. "I was going to bring you a mistletoe here, but it doesn't seem you need one. May I join in?"

Canada took the time to throw half a bucket of water at him. France squeaked and pulled back quickly, narrowly avoiding the wet attack.

"Just asking," France chuckled, closing the door properly. He held up the mistletoe branch he had been planning to attach to the sauna ceiling. Trying to go in again wasn't the brightest thing he could do right now... so maybe he should go and test this particular branch elsewhere and return later. Now that he thought about it, he still hadn't given Romano that little kiss he had promised. France smiled. Maybe now was the right time. Not even a sulky Italian could resist a friendly smooch this close to Christmas.

Romano, oblivious to France's plans, was just about to enter the kitchen. Actually, he was hesitating if his pride allowed this or not. Technically, it wasn't fair for him to stay here to party with everyone when he hadn't really done anything for the preparations... But offering to help now would be embarrassing and the tomato bastard would use the c-word on him, he was sure of it... But if he didn't do anything there wouldn't be any pasta on the menu and his idiot little brother would be sad when he came back... And those idiots kept screwing something up all the time so if Romano had to enjoy the party he would _have_ to do something... And−

He grimaced and opened the door. Only Belgium gave him a surprised look before turning back to her chocolate bowl. No one else seemed to notice he had come in. Romano huffed and went straight to a certain Spaniard who was standing by the table and cutting vegetables.

"Hey, tomato bastard," he started conversationally. "Is there something I could do?"

Spain looked at him in astonishment. Romano blushed.

"Just tell me something I can do!" he barked when the other just blinked.

Spain smiled. "Oh, you're finally in the mood, Romano? That's so cu–"

"Finish that word and I'll change my mind!" Actually he was already regretting he had opened that damn door.

Just as Spain was about to answer, France's approaching voice sang from the other side of the door. "Spain, mon ami~! Have you seen that little Italian of yours?"

Romano was about to object loudly to being labeled Spain's property, but Spain shut him up quickly and shoved him towards the other door in the room.

"Hide, quickly!" Spain hissed. When France was about to open the door before Romano was out of range, Spain dashed in to distract the him in the best and only way he could quickly think of.

France let out a surprised gasp when Spain kissed him forcefully. The distraction turned out to be very thorough. When they finally parted, France hummed breathlessly. "Hmm~? To what do I owe this sudden sweet− wait, you used that to disctract me, didn't you, sneaky bastard?"

Spain tried to look innocent, but failed miserably. France sighed. "I thought you were on my side. Oh well." He entered the room anyway and looked around. Forget sweet supple Italians for a while, the kitchen was full of feminine beauty in the form of Ukraine, Belgium and Liechtenstein, who had seemingly already recovered from her earlier embarrasment. France thought for a moment, fingering the green branch in his hand. He walked to Ukraine.

"My lady," he said, attaching the mistletoe to her hair. "You look beautiful today." France knelt in front of her briefly, raising her hand to his lips. Ukraine blushed and looked at her outfit: ordinary clothes under a red apron, not to mention the flour and other stains in it. What exactly made her look beautiful?

France stood up and and proceeded to Belgium. He pulled out another green miracle from who knows where and Belgium tensed, not sure if she should run away like Romano or if she actually wanted to stay. France leaned in closer and took her chin for a kiss but stopped suddenly, looking at her lips. Belgium tilted her head, wondering what had stopped him.

France purred. "Hmm, chocolate." He raised Belgium's chin upwards and leaned down to lick her lips lovingly, letting his tongue gather up the dark brown sweet lingering on her from taste-testing her cooking. When he was done he licked his own lips. "Delicious," he hummed to his tense and blushed partner. "Thank you for the treat."

Leaving the paralysed Belgium behind France turned to leave the kitchen and find his next... well, 'victim' was such an ugly word. At the door he stopped and looked up. _Now this place needs mistletoe,_ he thought and stood on tiptoe to hang Belgium's branch over the door. When he was done he nodded and let his hands and eyes fall, only to meet Norway standing right in front of him.

France opened his mouth to ask what was the matter, but Norway cut him off with passionate kiss, straight on the lips. Now France was thoroughly shocked. Spain he could understand, but _Norway– _wait, was that a _tongue_?

They parted and Norway simply turned to leave.

"Wait," France stopped him. "Who... who are you and what did you do to Norway?"

Norway huffed, blushing slightly. "Jes' felt like it." He turned back to give France a glare, which then turned to a small smile. "'S Christmas soon. I feel good right now."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The nations exited the castle in tense silence, partly expecting Grandfather Frost to change his mind and lock them in, or say 'just kidding' or something similar. When the ice gates slammed shut behind them, there was a collective relieved sigh. They were able to breathe freely again.

Prussia was the first to say something. "Gee," he said simply, taking a deep breath and laughing briefly. "Well, of course he'd finally give in in front of the Awesome Me."

"You didn't even do anything," Hungary told him.

"Did too," Prussia said. "Don't even try to deny you felt my Awesome presence."

"Shut up, brother," Germany ordered, massaging his temples.

"Shut up, _everyone_," Switzerland corrected. When this earned him a few enquiring looks, he sighed and explained. "I want it quiet for a while. It's been so loud with all the fighting we did that my ears could use a break before we use the snowmobiles again."

"Is that how you came all the way here?" Finland asked, receiving a nod from everyone else and a glare from Switzerland. Christmas wiggled out from inside his collar and pressed its little paws on his mouth. Finland chuckled quietly.

They made the trip to where the rescue party had left their snowmobiles in comfortable silence, basking in the happy warmth of the newly freed Christmas. Even Switzerland couldn't keep scowling for very long. He would have been the last to admit that something had been missing before, but now that it was brightly and vibrantly _there_ it was apparent what they had been missing.

They found General Winter waiting when they reached the snowmobiles. He had doodled the nearby trees full at some point, and looked very surprised that they actually had Finland with them.

However, no matter how much of a relief their guide's presence was, it did nothing to help the next thing they noticed.

"Umm... General?" Russia began hesitantly. "You do realise what you're sitting, don't you?"

General Winter raised his eyebrows. "On a snowmobile?"

Russia nodded. "That's right. And I gather you've been changing seats a few times?"

"Do you understand," Germany said emphatically. "That your icy arse is freezing our only way to get home?"

General blinked and didn't answer, just looked at the freezing snowmobiles around him.

"Does this mean..." Turkey frowned. "That we rescued the princess..." _("Hey!") _"...Made up with the not-villain... and can't get home?"

* * *

A/N: Sorry everyone: there was no actual "final showdown" ;_; we had comments about people waiting for that and felt like "Nooo! Can we change this at this point? We failed them!" but we couldn't change it OTL Firstly, we can't make Grandfather Frost to appear like an actual villain, that'd rude for all those who wait him every year and secondly, we didn't even have time for that.

**ChibiDryad242**: There's absolutely _nothing _wrong with rewieving so much. On the contrary, please do, we are pleased.

This chapter is un-betad, because Cheru is on a trip.


	22. 22nd December

**22/24**

Australia opened the door for Egypt who was carrying most of their shopping. Before they could step further in than enough to be out of the wind, they both stopped to look at France. He stood in the middle of the hallway, hands resting on his chest, looking at them expectantly with a mischievious glimmer in his eyes. When the two didn't seem to understand, he coughed and pointed up above their heads. There, over the door frame, hung a mistletoe branch.

Australia shrugged and turned to give Egypt a peck on the cheek. Egypt frowned and pulled him back when he retreated, giving him a proper kiss on the lips instead. Now satisfied, Egypt nodded and stepped inside, gesturing Australia to close the door behind them.

France smiled brightly, happy to see the tradition upheld, but it turned into a frown when he saw what Egypt was holding. "Um… Egypt," France said, looking at the pile of gingerbread dough that Egypt needed both hands to carry.

Egypt gave him an enquiring look, but France just stared at the dough, looking for words and failing to find any. Egypt gave him a questioning look next (and yes, there was a difference between the two, Egypt couldn't understand why so many people didn't see it). He rather wanted to set his load down already.

France turned away. "…Nothing. Ukraine! Australia and Egypt are back with the– uh... supplies!" he called, going towards the kitchen.

She shouted back something to the effect of "not now", but France didn't give up. He dragged Ukraine away from baking Christmas bread and into the hall. "No, this just needs your attention, ma chère."

"But but but!" Ukraine squeaked and tried to grab the nearest towel with her. "The flour will stain everything again!" she tried to object, but France showed no mercy. Upon seeing what he meant, Ukraine let out a wailing sigh. "Oh no, Egypt, please..."

"You can't be serious?" Iceland frowned from the stairs, coming down. "There must be at least ten kilos of that stuff."

"Fifteen," Australia grinned. "We just felt like it suddenly."

"Oh _please_." Iceland rolled his eyes, but the corner of his mouth was twitching suspiciously. "Australia, I do hope that's ham."

"No, lamb." Iceland was about to give him a piece of his mind, but Australia just laughed. "Don't blow your fuse, we've got ham too."

"Hey, great!" Korea cheered, shoving Iceland out of the way and coming to take some of the dough off Egypt's load. "Let's make a gingerbread house."

"How big a house do you imagine we can make from that much dough?" France asked.

"Well, let's make an apartment building," Taiwan said simply.

"But we have only one oven," Ukraine sobbed. "What about everything else that needs to be baked?"

"Calm down," Egypt said.

"Yeah, just leave it to us and we'll work it out somehow, Boss. You don't have to take care of everything," Australia reassured her. Then he turned to frown at Egypt. "Wait, did you just talk?"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"May I join in?" Canada asked cautiously. Finland's dining room had been invaded by Korea, Taiwan, Egypt and Australia, who were all busy dealing with the gingerbread dough, all in their respective corners of the largest table in the house.

"Just what were you doing for so long in that damn sauna?" Korea smirked and gestured Canada to the free spot at the table. "Take some, there's plenty for all of us."

"Where did Cuba go?" Australia asked conversationally when Canada took a piece of dough.

"He went with Norway to get our Christmas tree."

"About time," Korea sighed, dropping a chunk of light brown dough to the table with a dull plop. "May I decorate it?"

"Romano already said he'd do it," Australia said. "He found the tree decorations while he was turning everything upstairs upside down looking for the Christmas presents."

"Did he find them?" Korea asked eagerly.

"Nope," Australia shook his head. "Either Finland doesn't have them or then they're really well hidden."

Korea looked suddenly terrified. "There's a possibility we won't get any presents?"

"You could say that."

Korea seemed to lose his ability to breathe. He slammed his dough on the table and ran out of the room. "Romano! Romano! Where didn't you look yet? We have to find them!"

"Wait! Korea!" Taiwan set her masterpiece on the table and ran after the nation she had promised to keep out of too much trouble.

Australia sighed and glanced at Egypt. "Now it's just the two of us again."

"But..." Canada said. "But I'm here..."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Romano! Romano! Romano!"

"What's your problem? Hands off! Where do you think you're touching?" Romano tried to wiggle away.

"Your waist," Korea answered before going back to panicking gear. "The presents, Romano? Where are they?"

"I already told you I didn't find them," Romano scowled.

"Well let's go look for them." Korea took his hand and started dragging him upstairs. "Where haven't you looked?"

"I've looked everywhere," Romano said and frowned at Korea's hand that was holding his. "What's that brown stuff on your fingers?"

"Gingerbread."

"Speaking of brown stuff, no one has still cleaned that toilet," Iceland noted, going past them. Romano looked like he was going to be sick and immediately tried to detach his hand.

"Disgusting, mon chér," France mumbled, following Iceland towards the living room. He hung a mistletoe branch on Romano's hair curl as he went.

In the living room Iceland went straight to the fireplace to tell Norway's troll that it didn't have to dust that damn vase every ten minutes. France was about to head straight across the room for their original destination in the storage closet Monaco had managed to stuff most of her bowls and plates in, when he stopped by the sofa: Austria was still huddled against an armrest, hugging yet another tea mug. For a while France could only stand there, stunned by all his glorious, delicious options. Then he smiled, leaned down and put a branch behind Austria's ear. When this prompted no reaction, France gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek.

Austria jerked from the sudden contact and looked up briefly, long enough to see France give him an encouraging smile, before slipping back to his catatonic state. France left the mistletoe branch behind his ear and straightened up, a hand lingering in the aristocrat's hair fondly. When Iceland finally gave up on the troll they went to get those dishes Ukraine had asked for.

"You think the heroic rescue operation is a success?" France wondered aloud as he opened the door.

Iceland nodded. "Got to be. They'll be back soon."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Could we go ask Grandfather Frost for help?" Lithuania said.

"He barely_ let_ us leave, you think he'd _help_ us with it?" Prussia asked. He plopped down beside Hungary on one of the dead snowmobiles. They had given their best combined effort to repairs, but only three of them actually worked, one offered a valiant try and the rest remained silent. And there was no way nineteen nations could possibly ride home on three snowmobiles. General Winter coudn't carry them without freezing them solid. They couldn't walk. The reindeer was gone. Finland had been happy to hear she had escaped safely, but he was starting to miss the loyal partner who had carried him all the way here but was not there to help him back. All in all, it looked like they were going to spend Christmas in central Russia.

One by one they had given up on the frozen snowmobiles and found places to sit or trees to lean on. Finally America told Estonia to get out of the way, aimed a good kick at the machine they had been working on and stomped off. Estonia sighed and sat down on the snowmobile. The group fell back to silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Even Italy was subdued. Finland petted Christmas gently. The little creature sensed something was wrong, and did its best to give everyone a comfortable and warm feeling.

"Oh yeah," Switzerland said suddenly. He flung one rifle down from his shoulder and offered it to Finland, who was sitting on a snowmobile in front of him. "I presume this is yours."

"Oh," Finland took the weapon. "Thanks."

"Nice gun."

"Fat load of good it did me though… Oh. Switzerland, can you carry this for a while longer, please?" Finland handed the rifle back as soon as he had taken it. He turned to calm the white fluffball on his shoulder, who was staring at the firearm like a cat faced with cold water. "It's okay, Christmas, Finland is putting the bad thing away now, see? See?"

"It doesn't like guns?" Switzerland asked, almost disappointed.

"_No_, Switzerland, Christmas is totally a fan of firearms." Poland rolled his eyes.

America showed a thumbs-up to the little creature. "Like a true envoy of peace."

"But wait," Greece frowned. "It didn't seem to care about weapons before. I had a rifle too. And it's been happily riding around on _Belarus_."

Belarus glared at him half-heartedly for the comment. Finland smiled briefly.

"Well, you were kind of rescuing it before," he said. "It wouldn't do to be too picky when brave heroes come to bust you out from magical isolation, right Christmas?"

"Would you people shut up and think up a way for us to get home?" China barked. "I don't want to stay in here for ages."

"You don't like Russia, comrade China?"

"Russia maybe, but not snowy cold forests when we could be on our way to a party." China glared at the General, who coughed, trying to look like it wasn't his fault.

Silence fell again. Hong Kong started building something from the snow to kill time. After a while Italy joined him, and then America. When Poland and Turkey tried to join in, Sweden gave them a disapproving glare and they went back to thinking of a way to get home.

Time passed. It was already dark and getting even darker, mid-winter that it was. Warm clothes and the presence of Christmas had kept them from getting too cold, but there was a limit to their efficiency and gradually everyone was getting uncomfortable. Greece, Turkey and Italy had already huddled together in a miserable heap.

Germany sighed and opened his mouth to break the silence after a long while. "General. Could you at least take Christmas to the others?"

General Winter nodded. "I could."

"Let's not be too hasty," Prussia hurried to say. He didn't like the idea of the cute little hairball going anywhere.

"But it's the 23rd already, and it's getting late. We won't make it before Christmas," Germany rationalised. "The others have done all the work to make the place ready, and we're not going to make it there. The least we can do is introduce them to Christmas."

"Ya think they've actually done somethin'?" Denmark asked. Not that he doubted Korea's leader skills, Romano's ability to cooperate or Norway's boundless energy.

"Of course they have," America said, sounding very sure in his opinion. "Korea promised to handle it."

"Thass in itself kinda worrying," Turkey noted to Greece, who nodded.

"But I say, they have the right to meet Christmas," Germany turned the conversation back on track. "General– Finland, what is it?"

Finland stood up suddenly. He stared intently at the night sky, but when the others followed his gaze, they found only stars. Before anyone could ask, Finland laughed. He chuckled to himself, eyes still locked to the sky, then whooped loudly when he couldn't contain himself anymore.

"Yes! Yes!" Finland jumped to Sweden's arms to give his neighbour a hug to everyone's, especially Sweden's, bewilderment. "We're going to get home! I know it! I knew it!"

"What?" Hungary stood up. "What are you talking about?"

"Look!" Finland pointed exitedly at the sky and raised Christmas up with both hands so it could see as well. "There! Coming this way!"

First they couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Then England noticed and pointed out one star that looked peculiar. It was indeed coming to their direction from the north-west. And it burned bright red.

* * *

A/N: This chapter remains unbetad because we're slow and Cheru doesn't have enough time to do this (we finished making this chapter... maybe two hours ago? We're kinda busy preparing our own Christmas as well -.-'). We're sorry Cheru! We'll get the next one to you earlier. Well... at least we try. Thanks for the reviews again.

Warning: the last two chapters will be quite a bit longer than the others.


	23. 23rd December

**23/24**

"I knew it!" Finland ran forward as fast as he could with his snowshoes and jumped the last metre to his beloved partner's neck. He pressed his face into her fur. "I knew you wouldn't just run away."

Rascal nuzzled him affectionately, happy to see him safe and free. Christmas jumped onto her head, glowing like a lamp.

"You went to find help, didn't you?" Finland continued, standing up straight. "You went to see Father Christmas? And he gave you enough power to fly?" When Rascal nodded emphatically to all questions, Finland smiled brightly and gave the reindeer another brief hug before turning to the ones Rascal had brought back with her.

"Rudolph," Finland called and offered his hand, almost happy enough to cry with joy. "You all came to help us? Thank you."

The leader of Father Christmas's official sleigh team crossed the last few metres of distance between them and lowered his head a little, allowing Finland to pet his muzzle. Behind them, all the eighteen other nations were gaping, except Italy who only looked mildly confused and Hong Kong, who didn't look particularly like anything.

"I see... reindeer," England mumbled.

"Awesome," Prussia said. He came beside Finland as soon as his brain remembered to forward the message to his legs: here was a herd of _flying reindeer_ in front of them. A couple of others followed at his heels.

Prussia offered his hand to one animal. "Hello, _rein_deer. Can I pet you, _rein_deer?" _Cute! Cute! Too cute! _he added in his head when the reindeer gave him permission.

Hungary snorted beside him. Prussia's thoughts were just that obviously readable on his face. She walked to another reindeer to say hi. This one looked very strong and healthy, but above all proud and it didn't move much when Hungary came to pet it.

"Aren't you guys cute. Your fur is fabulous." Hungary ran her gloved fingers on the reindeer's neck. The animal gave her a sour look and Hungary could have sworn it was frowning. She turned to look over her shoulder. "Germany, this one looks like it'll get along with you." This thought was confirmed when both the nation and the reindeer gave her a disapproving glare.

Germany came beside her and measured the reindeer closely. "Finland. What's this one called?"

"Donner," Finland answered quickly before turning back to talk to America, who had come up to his side. "What's wrong, America?"

"Did you say 'Donner'?"America asked quietly. "And... and _Rudolph_?"

Finland chuckled. "Yeah. These eight," he pointed at the reindeer that looked a bit stronger and more confident than the rest. "Are the Christmas sleigh team. Rudolph of course in the lead. I guess you know them all, at least by name. The rest are still in training, a bit like Rascal, though most are older than her," Finland explained briefly and scratched Rascal behind the ear so she would stop nudging his arm for attention. "I'm surprised Father Christmas let his best come this far so close to Christmas. Maybe it's a warm-up."

"I think they might have gone to storm the castle if they hadn't noticed Christmas," Italy said and smiled. "So are we going to ride them? Can we fly home now?"

The nations stopped on their tracks and turned as one to stare at Finland, who just nodded cheerfully. "I think that's okay?" He glanced at Rudolph for confirmation and the reindeer nodded.

"Honestly?" bellowed America, Denmark, Prussia, Hungary, England and Poland, each one looking psyched up. They absolutely couldn't wait to _fly_ on a _Christmas reindeer_.

"I'll ride Rudolph!" America exclaimed immediately.

"No! I will!" Prussia objected.

"I think Russia will have to ride Rudolph," Finland said and ignored America's loud objections. "And everyone else who is, erm... big-boned needs to take one of the sleigh team. Some of the rest are probably only flying because Father Christmas gave them an extra boost. I'll take Rascal. You can you do it, right pal?" he asked the doe and laughed when she gave him that 'you-are-an-idiot' glare again.

"Okay, great," Turkey said and reached to ruffle one reindeer's fur. "Who's this one?"

"Snoozy."

"Oh." Turkey frowned and then grinned mischievously over his shoulder. "Hey Greece! I think you should ride this one."

"I'll kill you," Greece told him but came over anyway. Then he remembered a certain white fluffy thing who probably wouldn't appreciate the announcement. "Sorry, Christmas."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

It was early morning on Christmas Eve. At Finland's house, Spain stepped over Egypt and Japan to rouse Romano from his chosen spot by the fireplace in the living room. They had claimed all comfortable nooks in the house for sleeping, here and there in twos or threes: Liechtenstein, Seychelles and Monaco shared Finland's bed, and France had insisted he would have to join in between them when the others came home and doubled the lack of sleeping space.

Now, when most of the nations were just stirring awake from their beauty sleep, Spain dragged Romano out of his sleeping bag, pulled some clothes on him and guided the sleepy Italian to the Christmas tree Cuba and Norway had brought inside yesterday.

"Romano, it's Christmas," Spain announced in a whisper, careful not to wake Japan, Egypt or Austria. "It's finally here. We gotta decorate the tree! Come on, wake up, silly."

Romano grunted something in agreement and noted to his annoyance that Spain had put his shirt on inside out. Seychelles and Latvia came into the room, both yawning. Little by little, the house woke up and their last spurt for Christmas started.

An hour later most of the house was awake, only Ukraine's sacred space in the spare bedroom remained undisturbed: she had worked hard enough the last days to deserve a sleep-in. Australia and Monaco shared kitchen duty for the morning, and Japan had brought out a video camera to record the juicy bits of the day. Romano, having promised to handle the Christmas tree, was fully in character and enjoying himself greatly.

"No!" he shouted at France. "No mistletoe in my territory! And no fish: Seychelles, away with them. You don't get it! This is art and needs to be done with style. Meaning, stop meddling with that tinsel, Egypt. Norway, what does that troll think it's doing with the tree topper? Korea–" Romano stopped and stomped his foot forcefully. "Would you all just back off and let me take care of this?"

The sound of the doorbell disturbed the farce. Liechtenstein set down the box full of baubles she'd been holding.

"I'll go," she said and went to the front door. Opening it, she briefly registered the crowd of nations on the front yard before her eyes locked on the one standing straight in front of her.

"Hey," Finland smiled.

Liechtenstein swayed on her feet a little. "...Oh."

Her eyes started shining when she noticed one important detail. "Oh!" she said more loudly, jumped into Finland's arms and, to the shock of the entire rescue party, gave him a kiss.

It took one shocked heartbeat for Switzerland to produce two assault rifles, one in each hand, but he was stopped by Christmas. The creature was sitting on Finland's shoulder and waving a forepaw at him reassuringly, puffy tail pointing at the mistletoe over the door.

England frowned. "France. Definitely France."

Liechtenstein let go of Finland and smiled. "Welcome home."

"Th... thanks," Finland stuttered, staring at her.

"Ah, mon chér," France greeted, coming towards them with open arms. "We bid you welcome."

Finland quickly stepped away from the mistletoe before France could reach him, to France's disappointment. The others filed in after him and the home team gathered to greet them, crowding the hall with a laughing, chattering mass of nations.

"Flying reindeer! Actual! Flying! Reindeer!"

"Is everyone all right? Whoa, your cheeks are cold. Come on, I'm sure Sealand didn't hog all my hot chocolate yet."

"Reviving mooks! And I didn't get any because West had to be a tight-ass like usual!"

"You gotta tell everything, no leaving out one detail, got that?"

"Ve, the castle was so pretty... And brother, my reindeer's name was Polly! She was nice and her fur was kind of rough but still so warm! And Hong Kong took the one named Jumper even though China tried to stop him..."

"Yeah, yeah. Stop blabbering for a moment and let me get you out of all those clothes."

"Ya guys better've some food ready, we ran out o' rations yesterday. "

"Hana! Here, girl! Did you miss me?"

"America, get in and close the damn door, it's freezing out there!"

"_Flying reindeer!_"

America lingered in the doorway for a moment more, making hopeful eyes at England who was coming in after him, but only received a snort and a kick on his butt that made him step away from the dangerous plant. England finally banged the door shut. Ukraine padded downstairs wrapped in a bathrobe, gave a high-pitched squeak when she saw where all the noise was coming from and flew right into Russia's arms.

"Russia! My little Russia, you made it back so perfectly! How was Grandpa?"

"I think we will have to visit him more often, sister," Russia smiled, hugging her back. Ukraine nodded.

"Let's do that, then. Belarus, come and give your big sister a hug!"

Ukraine made a beeline for Belarus next, and Finland sidestepped her, blushing heavily when he saw she was wearing his bathrobe. He coughed to cover it up, and Cuba laughed loudly at him.

"I see you've... cleaned here a bit?" Finland said, trying to direct the conversation elsewhere.

"A bit?" Cuba snorted. "Yeah, a _bit_. Just you wait."

Before he or anyone else could tell Finland the details, Finland's eyes widened.

"Korea, what are you doing? What is that? Wait!" he toed off his boots and shoved Christmas to Turkey's hands. "Hold this for a second. Korea!"

He ran off, leaving Turkey to gape after him. "Hey, waita sec–"

His thoughts were disturbed by Christmas, who was padding a small circle on his palm, long tail curling around it. Turkey stared with wide eyes as Christmas gave him a deep-blue glance, settled and cuddled in satisfaction. Turkey could just stare at it, eyes even wider, unable to take look away from the little creature sniffing silently on his hand.

Greece looked meaningfully at Egypt, who nodded and grabbed Japan's video camera, turning it towards Turkey and Christmas. Japan opened his mouth to lecture him about politeness, but decided this was urgent when he saw Turkey.

Finland didn't make it to Korea before he was faced with a bad-tempered Norway. Iceland came up behind him. They simply stared at each other for a long minute, saying nothing, and then Norway raised his hand and swatted Finland over the head. Finland winced. Norway kept staring for an uncomfortable while more, but then his eyes started twitching and he moved restlessly. Finally he threw aside his pride and pulled Finland into a hug.

Finland smiled and patted Norway's shoulder gently. "Yes, I know. I'm sorry."

"Don't ever do that again," Iceland made him swear. Finland smiled and was about to answer when Sealand joined in on the conversation.

"Bad mama," he scolded, trying to look stern. He failed very quickly and joined Norway in a hug.

Finland frowned, but decided to let the 'mama' slide this time. _It's Christmas_, he reminded himself.

As if to echo his thoughts, Taiwan spoke next. "I've been thinking about it, but what is that?" she pointed at the direction of Turkey and the white hairball with a tail on his palm.

"And more importantly!" Korea exclaimed. "Tell us everything! Properly!"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Korea had been persuaded to wait with the combined effort of America, Denmark and Poland, who insisted that the story needed time and preferably accompanying alcohol to be retold in all its glory. Korea would not have given up so easily, but he was accosted by Finland who demanded to know what the polished wooden slide was doing in his staircase.

America followed their ensuing debate with quiet glee. Korea was adamant that getting down the stairs so much faster was a definite improvement, and America had to agree. Besides this way it was more fun too. By the time Finland was starting to understand trying to persuade Kores to dismantle his slide was a futile effort, America had noticed something more interesting: a glimpse of a gingerbread house in the dining room. He left Finland and Korea to quarrel and went see what kind of house the home team had made, hoping it was big enough for there to be enough for everyone after he had taken his share.

Somebody's back blocked most of America's view as he walked closer, but then the somebody moved just as America reached the dining room, and he was treated to the full sight.

America's eyes and mouth both watered at the sheer brilliance of it. A fully developed gingerbread town spread around the room on shelves, tables, makeshift tables and finally, after the gingerbread river ended in a waterfall, on a chair. Houses, cottages, roads, a river and a bridge, trees, bustling gingerbread citizens, dogs, and a polar bear and as the centrepiece directly opposite the door, a large spire castle, presented to the collection by Taiwan. It was complemented by Japan's scale replica of Matsumoto Castle in the right-hand end of town.

"Stop drooling, America," somebody told him. America was startled out of his reverie. He looked around.

"Oh. Hey, bro."

Canada rolled eyes at him and continued to shake powdered sugar over the rooftops. "Yeah, glad to see you too."

America wasn't listening. He had just laid eyes on Korea's very disturbing contribution. A fully functional gingerbread railroad snaked around the town. The GingerbreadExpress had just arrived on Drury Lane, and Sealand ran in to load the passenger car. America turned to Canada. "How did he do that?"

Canada turned pale. "Don't ask…" he whispered.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

At the same time in the living room, Prussia and Hungary had spotted the mistletoe behind Austria's ear and immediately started a mighty brawl over possession rights. In the end they were both out of breath and Hungary emerged victorious, holding the branch in her hand. Austria blinked, vaguely aware of his surroundings again.

"Ha!" Hungary pointed at Prussia. "I win!"

Prussia huffed. "Whatever! I don't need mistletoe to−" He paused in horror when he realised what he was saying. It was too late, however: Hungary was already in heaven after hearing the beginning.

Prussia tried to change the subject. "How the hell did that mistletoe end up there in the first place?" he asked from the large audience that had followed their fight with interest.

Korea and Taiwan helpfully pointed at France, who paled and quickly tried to escape, but Prussia charged immediately after him. Hungary gasped and hugged Austria tightly. His head sunk into her bosom, making Austria blush slightly.

Prussia snatched France's shirt with both hands to prevent his escape. "You kissed Austria?"

"Only on the cheek! The cheek!" France said quickly, frantically trying to save his life.

"_So you DID kiss Austria?_"

France used his last remaining card: pulled out another mistletoe and put it into good use shutting Prussia up. Hungary squeaked and hugged Austria closer, almost strangling him in the process.

France pulled away and whispered in Prussia's ear. "Do forgive me, mon chér ami… I did not realise you would be so jealous."

He slipped away, hoping Prussia would be paralysed enough not to follow. Prussia didn't betray his expectation and just stood still, sputtering something unintelligible. He raised his hand like he wanted to say something, but no words came. England came over and put a can of beer in Prussia's extended hand. Meanwhile, Germany noticed Austria was starting to turn blue in Hungary's grasp and moved in to detach her.

"Are you okay?" he asked, supporting Austria.

Hungary stared with stars in her eyes. Quickly she raised the mistletoe she had obtained a moment ago above their heads. When Germany and Austria realised the situation they were in, both of them blushed, Germany considerably more furiously.

When Austria saw the situation wasn't going anywhere with Germany boiling over with embarrassment, he glanced tiredly at Hungary. She looked at them expectantly, and Austria gave a weary sigh. Calmly he leaned over to peck Germany's lips. Hungary gave an ecstatic squeal, while Germany slumped on the floor with empty glaring eyes. Italy hurried over to calm him down. Austria rose from the couch for the first time for a long time, stretched and started towards the kitchen, deciding it was high time for some Glühwein.

Prussia opened his beer and drained it in one. England handed him another one.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

They wrapped up the preparations together. The last decorations were added, now with Finland there to say his opinion about something as well. Romano's Christmas tree received praised by many after they survived the shock that Southern Italy had seriously worked this time. Italy spent half an hour chirping at how pretty the tree was, completely ignoring Prussia who was trying to catch him under a mistletoe, and Germany who followed two steps after his brother to keep him from doing just that. Japan's Christmas flower arrangements on the staircase handrail gathered similar attention, making the Asian embarrassed.

Christmas was everywhere: climbing amid the branches of the Christmas tree and surprising everyone when Romano politely asked it to come down; poking its little snout into the oven when Monaco opened it to take out the turkey; nibbling on a corner of a gingerbread cottage and getting showered in sugar for it; trying to hide in Spain's hat when he lead a group of nations to church, armed with very detailed instructions from Finland and a stern notice that no one wanted to go searching for lost ones anymore. It was continuously shining with such a bright golden-white light now that Sealand tried to convince everyone to put out the lights since they wouldn't need them.

The Christmas table was set: everything the cooking team and their reinforcements had finished was brought out, and the things that still needed a final touch were perfected and carried to the large dining room table, the only remaining surface in the room that was free of gingerbread.

"Just how much food did you make," England asked, eyes wide when new and new dishes were added on the table.

"Oh, just a few things," Ukraine smiled.

Finland stared at the table, and then disappeared to the kitchen. After a little while he returned with a dish of something… yellow brown and mushy looking. France just had to ask.

"Finland… what is that?"

"It's lanttulaatikko." Finland nudged Denmark's andesteg to one side and Spain's lobster to another and set down his load. "Christmas doesn't smell like Christmas without it."

Christmas tilted its head. Finland smiled and offered the creature a little bit of the food on the tip of a spoon. Christmas sniffed experimentally and then licked the offering with its small tongue. It started shining bit more brightly and flicked its tail happily.

Finland grinned. "See, he likes it."

"Mon Dieu," France muttered, eyeing the dish suspiciously.

England coughed something that sounded vaguely like 'oysters'.

After that, the kitchen had to be cleaned after all the cooking. Especially the oven was quite a sight before Sweden showed up with some proper equipment and took the lead.

Once the church-goers had wandered back in, Spain bringing up the rear, everything was just about set. Finland went around gathering everyone into the living room with a glass of something they wanted to drink, recommending hot mulled wine with raisins and almonds to everyone who listened. A team with Cube in the lead had spent the better part of an hour mixing drinks and bringing out bottles, so they weren't short of choices. Once everyone was more or less present and holding drinks, Finland spoke up.

"So erm, everyone! I'm not very good with this speech thing but I wanted to say a few words." He blushed a bit as nations quieted down and turned to look at him. "First off, I never thanked you properly. So, thanks for coming for me. Every one of you."

He was met with smirks, nods and a quickly hushed chorus of modest dismissals. Finland continued.

"Secondly, everyone who stayed here to make this party for us: thank you as well. This is brilliant, scratches on my ceiling notwithstanding..."

Austria's eyebrows twitched and Norway raised a hand to his forehead. Korea looked at the Christmas tree, wondering at how beautiful it was.

"Also, I would like to take this opportunity to note that we will be spending New Year's at Russia's."

Ignoring the gaping and some hushed questions, Finland raised his glass.

"Finally, I would like to propose a toast. Christmas... this is for you."

* * *

A/N: We apologise we couldn't make this in time. The last two chapters proved too long and difficult to be done at the same time with our real Christmas preparations and celebrations. The 24th chapter will be out before New Year.

Lanttulaatikko = Rutabaga cassarole. A very traditional Finnish Christmas dish. We didn't translate it because we're trying to use British English, in which case "lanttu" translates into "swede" and it was disturbing.

Extra information: There were 21 reindeer coming to the rescue: ten pairs and Rudolph. (I'm telling this because we thought these up for this chapter and in the end only a few made it in. -.-)

Reindeer (rider): Rudolph (Russia), Dasher (Denmark), Dancer (Sweden), Prancer (Switzerland), Vixen (Belarus), Comet (America), Cupid (Turkey), Donner (Germany), Blitzen (England), Rascal (Finland), Mellow (Estonia), Pitter (Hungary), Patter, Topsy (China), Turvy, Jumper (Hong Kong), Polly (Italy), Glider (Lithuania), Glitter (Poland), Snowy (Prussia), Snoozy (Greece)


	24. 24th December

Our deepest apologies to everyone for the long long long wait. But here we finally are with the 24th chapter. I'll try explaining why this happened in the end, but now please, enjoy this extra-long chapter.

* * *

**24/24**

"The reindeer left us a little away from here and flew back to Father Christmas for their usual Christmas duties," Finland said. "So we walked the rest of the way home and… And that's more or less it."

"Wicked," Korea said and looked around, wanting someone to back up his opinion.

"I want to fly a reindeer too!" Sealand announced, turning to Sweden. "Can I, Papa?"

Sweden glanced at Finland, who smiled. "Maybe." Sealand didn't seem thoroughly satisfied with that, but there was no room for more argument with all the chatter around them as it was.

"Did you enjoy flying, brother?" Liechtenstein asked from Switzerland, holding his hand.

Switzerland blushed slightly and his eyes darted when he muttered. "Well… maybe."

Unlike Sealand, Liechtenstein seemed satisfied with that and gave Switzerland her most serene smile.

"So you promised to Grandfather Frost we would celebrate New Year at Russia?" Austria summarised, running his hand through his hair. "To avoid things like this happening again. Correct?"

"Exactly," Germany answered, nodding. "I don't think it's such a bad idea at all."

"Bro, why haven't I ever met Thanksgiving?" America asked Canada, still slightly bad-tempered about the matter. If anyone knew Thanksgiving, it should be _him. _Who else could it be?

"Whose life did you think your boss spares every year?" Canada asked back.

America paled in the horror of realization, jaw hanging open.

England leaned closer to Canada. "Seriously?"

"Well not exactly," Canada whispered back. "Close enough though, but Thanksgiving is always left unnoticed if he goes to see America because my brother doesn't stop long enough to look around properly. So he usually travels around the country to watch the celebration from the sidelines."

"So this was revenge from both of you for being ignored?" England confirmed.

"Kinda, yeah."

"Was that nice?"

"Definitely not, but also definitely worth it, eh?" Canada nodded at America who was somewhere in his own world and quietly repeating something that sounded like "turkey".

At the other part of the room, other kinds of conversations were going on. "Sounds like you had fun time," Spain said, smiling, receiving a nod from Prussia in response. "We of course too, but that's really an exciting way to prepare for Christmas."

"Next year again?" Seychelles suggested hopefully. "I can come too." She looked strangely psyched up at the thought.

"You mean we should ask Grandfather Frost to kidnap Christmas and capture Finland again next year?" Russia confirmed, giving away that it wasn't at all bad idea to his mind.

"Umm…" Finland said, pondering and his eyebrow twitching. "Maybe not? Sve, stop hugging me."

"But Estonia," Latvia started. "What exactly happened to your hair? It's still a little greenish…"

Estonia closed his eyes tightly and Hungary and Germany blushed heavily. "Restricted… information," he said _very_ slowly, holding back the urge to go and try to wash his head in a sink.

Prussia chuckled. "Oh come on, it was your own fault."

"Brother," Germany growled. "Shut up."

"Well anyway," France said, saving Estonia from the further shame. "Now that this thing is somehow clear, isn't it about time for us to get known with our _little _pickup Yule Table better? We haven't really taken a proper bite yet. And– no offence, your story was interesting, but– I'm starting to get hungry."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Fin~, 'm standing under the mistletoe~!" Denmark cheered from the doorway.

"Oh," Finland answered and continued eating, holding the plate on the windowsill as there weren't enough tables for everyone. "I see."

Denmark huffed, irritated and turned his attention to the other side of the room. "Norge~, 'm standing under the mistletoe~!"

"Well thass nice fer ye, innit?" Norway answered, sipping his drink and pointedly not looking.

Denmark scoffed and tossed his head. "Ya two're boring."

"No," France answered on the Nordics' behalf, gliding to a stop in front of Denmark on his way in. "You just don't know how to do it properly." He pressed a kiss to Denmark's lips before continuing inside. "Anyone seen England?" he asked, looking innocently mischievous. "I..." He pondered his words for second. "...have something for him."

"I doubt he wants it, whatever it is," Taiwan noted, mumbling, coming in with a full plate of international Christmas food. She kissed Denmark briefly as well as she passed him by. That made Denmark finally wake up from his fantasies and step away from the mistletoe over the doorway before every single nation coming in would have a taste of him. Not before Norway had one at least.

Christmas hopped down from Denmark's shoulder and went back to the doorway and under the mistletoe, head turning from side to side in search of someone who'd come to the room next and give it a kiss. The next one to arrive was Sweden, who stopped before the shiny-eyed creature looking up at him expectantly. Sweden measured Christmas with a scary expression, only to be baffled when the creature wasn't at all affected by his usually intimidating presence, only waited for him to do what the tradition commanded. Unfortunately Sweden, known to be so strong-minded before cute little animals, found himself unable to move in any way, because of those blue eyes locked at him and tail that flicked behind the white fluffy ball of fur.

Liechtenstein appeared behind him with her brother.

"Sweden, you're blocking the doorway, would you– ...oh," Switzerland began, but his eyes locked to Christmas as well and he stopped.

"Oh Christmas," Liechtenstein squealed. "You're so cute!"

Christmas turned to her, shining happily and the nose shivering. Liechtenstein crouched down and scooped Christmas to her palms, raising it upwards to give the creature a kiss on the tip of its nose. Christmas turned pink and its tale fluffed, making all its fur stick up. It still shivered when Liechtenstein let it down on the floor again and went to the living room.

"Finland!" she called, waving her hand to catch the nation's attention. "What's that thing you have in your study? That white and fluffy thing? It's so cute."

"Oh, that one. It's a moomin," Finland answered ad raised his gaze from the food when Liechtenstein came closer. "Home made," he then added.

Switzerland and Sweden stayed at the door, staring at Christmas who had taken its tail into its fore paws and was trying to get the puff at the end in order. However, it was still gloving pink. Both nations were currently suffering from a cuteness overload and were unable to take their eyes of the creature.

"Finland, you have a stuffed moomin in your study?" France asked doubtfully, shivering for the lack of elegance the thought made him see.

"Yeah, my whole collection's there. They help me relax."

"Oh... brother?"

Liechtenstein's slightly worried question turned their heads to the door. Christmas had ran up Switzerland's leg and stopped to the shoulder to kiss the nation's cheek, then turned to hop on the nearby shoulder and do the same thing to Sweden. Currently it was pointing upwards with its tail and Switzerland and Sweden had both noticed that they were indeed both standing under the mistletoe.

Finland and Liechtenstein quickly understood the deadlock situation at the doorway. With those two, the situation wasn't going anywhere. If Christmas hadn't been there, Switzerland had no doubt just walked away, but now he had a pair of sparkling, excited blue eyes demanding action there before him. Giving each other a look and smile, Finland and Liechtenstein proceeded through the room to Sweden and Switzerland, who couldn't bring themselves to kiss each other, and kindly helped the two.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

In the corner of the dining room, beside the bank, the traffic circle and the powdered sugar fountain of the gingerbread town, a small group of nations had gathered around a video camera where Japan and Egypt had recorded some events of the decorating process. Their space was a little cramped but all the food was near, the gingerbread smelled nice and Hungary insisted it created just the necessary atmosphere. And not even many people who came to get more food complained that much about them being in the way, especially when the people who would have likely complained the most about it were already present and complaining.

"And just look at that," Romano continued and pointed at the apron floating in the screen. "That damn... _thing _messed up with the tree topper all the damn time. 'Dusting' my ass. It just couldn't keep its filthy hands away from my masterpiece for a second. Just like you." With the last he pointed at Egypt who raised his eyebrows as if wondering what was the other talking about. Southern Italy just glared at him when the video clip changed and he turned his attention again back to the screen.

"What's this?" Greece asked.

"Sealand stole some of Belgium's chocolate and tried to give Hanatamago a war paint," Spain explained truthfully, watching the scene he had only heard before with carefree interest.

"So Belgium chased him?" England verified.

"Yes."

"Why with a toothbrush?"

"That was the closest weapon I could find," Belgium defended, shrugging.

England frowned and opened his mouth to say something about the definition of weapons but the video clip changed and he decided it wasn't a right time for a lecture and concentrated on the screen instead.

The next in line (they had shuffled the contents) was Egypt's film with Turkey holding Christmas on his palm and suffering from too much cuteness hacking the sane side of his mind.

"Turkey, you're so sweet," Hungary said teasingly and poked the man beside him. Turkey raised his hand to his mask, looking away a little and was seemingly not at all happy for being called sweet.

Christmas appeared from somewhere and took a mighty jump from a top of a gingerbread roof to the embarrassed nation's arm, then climbing up to his shoulder. It nuzzled his cheek affectionately, making poor Turkey shudder. Christmas's tail wagged happily and it nuzzled even closer and looked like it was purring. Turkey raised his hand slowly and slightly blushing to pet the small creature although it seemed to be somehow against his pride. Egypt whipped up the camera again, just in time to record Christmas's little kiss to the bearded cheek and due this act, Turkey heavily blushing.

That moment France appeared from the door and the scene was disturbed.

"Ah, England, there you are, mon chéri," the Frenchman said smiling and raised a mistletoe, winking an eye in the way he always made women giggle and squirm embarrassed. England, on the other hand, looked terrified rather than excited, let alone embarrassed.

"Get away from me, frog," he warned and fought his way away from the group around the camera when France came closer.

"And oh give me a reason why should I?" France purred reaching the camera group and fighting his way past them after England who was escaping on the other side of the table.

"This is sexual harassment!" England declared, reaching the door of the room. He wanted France to give up so he could go back to watch the videos. He should have known better.

France laughed. "Mon chéri, that's exactly the point. And it looks like I didn't even need this." He raised his mistletoe branch. When England didn't seem to understand what was he talking about, France kindly pointed on the top of England's head.

Without even looking, England could tell and sense the dangerous plant that was hanging over his head. He paled and France quickly came closer. Almost panicking, England noticed at the last second when France was only a few steps away from him, that someone passed by in the corridor behind him. Clinging to this thread of hope, England grabbed the passerby and pulled him in for a smooch. All the expressions in the room were indescribable and England's face blue in horror when his saving angel turned out to be Russia. Only Christmas seemed to have fun.

England retreated and mumbling a quick apology, he ran away without looking back.

Russia blinked after him. "I was just going to get a drink," he said, and glanced at France who was pouting. This was the eighth time England had won their little game of tag that day, and France was running out of nations he hadn't yet kissed as a substitute. Speaking of which...

"Oh dear, Russia, you stole my kiss," France scolded, stepping closer. "Naughty boy. Of course you pay back like a proper nation does," he assumed and tiptoed to kiss the Russian on the mouth, cupping both of Russia's cheeks to his hands.

Everyone in the room froze. The first one could pass as a joke and England would only maybe suffer some financial pressure for a time, now France was truly begging for a nuclear war. But instead of nuclear retribution, to everyone's amazement, including France, Russia was strangely surprisingly happy about the sudden French kiss.

When the two parted and Russia happily ruffled France's hair before making the rest of his way to the kitchen where he had originally been heading, they decided it was best no one said a word. France had frozen in place in shock of how good Russia actually was at this trade. If Belarus ever knew, he'd be dead.

Christmas shone happily in the candle-lit room, the colour of its self-produced light changing to fit the one in the room. They had once questioned Finland about the changes of the light and the nation Santa had cheerfully answered that of course it adapted to its surroundings: Christmas can be anywhere. From what they had seen just now, they were ready to believe that.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

It was late at the evening already, when the front door of the house slammed open, inch away from actually cracking, and a furious looking Netherlands barged into the house and made his way to the living room, an angry Luxembourg at his heels.

"Why didn't anyone call us!" he demanded to know, pointing an accusing finger of doom at everyone in the room at the time.

"Ah!" Belgium slapped her forehead. "I _knew_ I forgot something!"

"_Forgot something?_" her brothers bellowed in unison, but Belgium just laughed.

"Oh~ don't sweat it, guys." Austria smiled at them from beside the fireplace and raised a glass of red drink. "Come here and have a hot drink."

Switzerland frowned. "No more alcohol for him. Just how much of that Glühwein storage has he gone through?" He glared at the woman chuckling beside him.

"A little?" Hungary offered, trying to hold back her smile.

"I'd appreciate if someone enlightened me," they heard a new voice behind Netherlands and Luxembourg. "What am _I _doing here too?"

Netherlands turned to look at him. "Well since you were at my place. I couldn't leave you there when I left, could I? And come on, you want to have fun with everyone too, right?"

"Whatever," Cameroon answered, shivering heavily. He had a small icicle hanging from his nose. "The Netherlands is up north enough for me: this... is ridiculous."

"I know how you feel," General Winter said behind him and tried to pat the Cameroon's shoulder but was stopped by a unified shout of "NO!" from everyone nearby.

"I came too," another new voice said and New Zealand popped a head from behind the doorframe to look inside. "And they weren't invited either but I picked up some friends with me. Hope that's okay, Finland?" New Zealand stepped further inside and was about to say something more, buy couldn't due to being instantly tackle-hugged by Australia. The sheep went on ahead to chew a branch of the Christmas tree.

"Sure," Finland said quickly, smiling as he came closer, though he was wondering where would everyone fit in. His house was large, yes, but it wouldn't have enough space for the whole world. "Welcome. Yes. You're most welcome, everyone."

"Sorry for crashing the party," Thailand answered and shook hands with their host. "India said he's going come by later, so save some food for him."

"No need to be sorry. It was rude not to invite us in the first place," Netherlands said, still pouting, though Belgium just laughed and hugged them, calling them to have some food and Christmas beer and chattering how everything was so delicious.

"But we could have called," Vietnam reasoned, greeting the housemaster.

"No problem," Finland assured, but added. "Much, at least. And you two seem to be in a need of some hot chocolate?" He smiled at the freezing Cypruses, who kept glancing in General Winter's direction with panic-mixed awe. Turkey and Greece appeared and, both giving the General a furious glare, took their own Cyprus in tow and took off to make them feel warm again. Many who saw this couldn't help but giggle at the sight of the two acting like over-worried parents.

Finland turned to the last three who had come in. "And you three gentlemen I really didn't expect to see. Did you grab them with you as well, Zea?"

Before New Zealand could answer (due to still being in the middle of getting hugged to death by Australia, although Wy was poking her big brother to give her a hug as well) the said trio entered the living room and one of them gave the answer. "No. _We _were the ones to pick up the Benelux two and just happened to come at the same time with the others. And you, brat." He grabbed England by the collar. "Next time give us a ring if you sniff out a party, or I'll truly declare independence next time."

England coughed, trying to free himself. "Hullo, Scotland," he said hoarsely. Scotland only gave him a glare and was about to change the glare into words, but Christmas appeared on the back of his palm, looking at him as strictly as it could manage, so he dropped England down, confused.

"What's that?" he asked warily.

"Christmas. Full explanation would take hours, it's the reason I've just hours ago returned from central Russia. Ringing up relatives didn't exactly cross my mind."

Wales smiled serenely. "Sooner or later you _are _going to have to explain. But I guess we'll let it slide this time. It's Christmas after all." Christmas went pink again. Wales glanced to the other two. "Right, you guys?"

Both Scotland and Northern Ireland just huffed at this and looked so unsatisfied England figured he should thank Wales later for saving his arse by persuading them to let it be.

"Okay then!" Finland stole the attention back to himself by clapping his hands together. "Now that there's so many of us gathered and we're still somewhat sober, I think it's time for a very important event. Sve, Nor, Ice, Den; would you call everyone to this direction while I get ready?" Saying this, he was gone. His fellow Nordics raised their eyebrows but obliged.

A moment later Finland appeared from the door again in his Santa outfit and with a bulging sack on his back. He set it down on the floor and opened it. Korea and Romano opened their mouths but nothing came out at the first shock. Christmas presents.

Romano stepped before Finland. "Where the hell were they! We looked everywhere!"

Finland just smiled.

"Well, isn't that okay?" Spain patted Romano's shoulder. "At least there are some."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Korea," Finland called and handed over a present wrapped in a decorated red paper and with white strings around it. "This is for you."

"Wow!" Korea hoorayed and almost hugged the present when he got it in his hands. "I was a good boy after all! This is the best Christmas ever!"

Finland laughed, already a new present in his hand and he called its new owner to get it. "Scotland." As Finland offered the present, Scotland raised his thick eyebrows and came closer, eyes wary like it (or Finland) would bite him. Then when it was on his hands and he weighted it up and down, his expression brightened as he guessed what was inside.

"Wales!" he called, already opening the wrappings and pulling out a bottle of whiskey. "Drinking time!"

"Hey, you're not supposed to open–" Finland started but then just sighed. "Oh well, whatever. Greece."

The Mediterranean took a bigger, soft package, poking and studying it. Before he could do more than approve it with nod, America shoved him out of the way and demanded himself one. While Finland was arguing with him to wait for his turn, he simultaneously kept slapping either Prussia's or Denmark's fingers away from his present sack. When neither of the three gave up, Finland sighed and dove inside the present sack. After a while he came back up with their respective presents.

"Here," Finland said, defeated. "Now stop bothering me."

Prussia frowned and stared at the simple white envelope Finland had given him, turning it around in his fingers. "It's..." he pouted, looking unsatisfied. "Small."

"Don't complain and open it." Finland said. When Prussia continued pouting but shut up anyway, it was America's turn to complain. He stared at his present Finland was offering and didn't touch it. Finland raised his eyebrows questioningly. "What's wrong?"

"But but," America said. "You didn't hear what I wanted for my present! I wanted to change but-"

"You don't need to tell me, silly." Finland smiled. "Did you think Germany _asks_ for porn mags every year?" He pointed at the corner of the room beside the Christmas tree where the younger German brother was clutching a pile of magazines and DVDs of somewhat questionable content. On top of the pile was the book that had been hidden under the others. It had been an extra Finland had asked Italy to help him with. Finland found it funny Germany had lost his poker face and blushed only when the text "How to Seduce An Italian/by Italy" had crossed his eyes.

But America had had enough proof by now. "Mind reader! Mind reader, I knew it! You're probably a commie too!"

Finland batted him upside the head with a wrapped gift and finally handed it to him. "Open your present, idiot."

"Fin!" Denmark bellowed and shoved him the calendar he had taken from his package. His hands were shaking. "W-w-w-wha-what is this?"

"You don't like it?" Finland asked back, concerned.

"What 'sit?" Norway shoved Liechtenstein with her new snowboard carefully out of his way and came to see. He's eyes had squinted suspiciously. "I saw myself, _what _is it?"

Denmark quickly hid the calendar and backed off. He was obviously liking his present very much and thought that Norway's presence might endanger its existence.

Norway turned to the Santa and pointed at the calendar. Though Denmark was hiding it against his chest, the part of the heading was partly in sight and it wasn't hard to make out the word 'Nordic' from it. "Fin. What's that?" he demanded.

"It's just some pictures I took around the year," Finland explained, smiling and added. "Of us."

"Den." Norway glared at the him. "Wha' kind of pictures?"

Denmark blushed and backed away, shaking his head. Norway went pale. "F-i-n-l-a-n-d..."

"Here," Finland just said and handed him a present, still smiling.

"Oh...thanks..." Norway took the package and almost forgot the calendar until Denmark made a mistake of moving, catching his attention again. "Wait a minute, Den! Giv' me tha'– Stop escapin'! Hey!"

And so the two were gone.

"Is tha' 'kay?" Sweden wondered.

"Of course it is," Finland answered easily. "Here's yours." When Sweden leaned down to take his present, Finland gave him a peck to the cheek. "Thanks for coming to get me home."

Sweden's expression wavered. "Mn. Shur..." Then he retreated to fumble with his Christmas present without opening it.

The present giving continued for a while without bigger complaints or chaos excluding a few more problematic cases: Hong Kong had to be instructed that he should change into his new Bruce Lee tracksuit somewhere with fewer people watching, while Belarus had to be convinced not to test her new throwing knife set immediately.

"Y... y-you just... just..." Belarus stuttered, extremely out of her usual character. "Oh, you just know what to give for a woman," she thanked Finland sincerely, blushing and accidentally gave him a short smile.

"Well, I guess," Finland said, flattered and scratched his head, not knowing should he be scared or not. "It's kinda my job to give everyone something they need or like."

Sweden glanced at him doubtfully, but decided it would be wiser to say nothing and turned back to his brand new apron that had word 'wife' embroidered to the chest with pink.

Switzerland, however, didn't follow Sweden' way of thinking. He so was going to say something about this. "How... how is this..." he tried to find a way to share his opinion. He was blushing, but no one was quite sure if it was for anger, embarrassment or something else, not even Switzerland himself.

"Isn't that just okay?" Belgium said, laughing, and leaned down to hug the sitting Switzerland. "It's just cute, is it not?" She showed him her package of Swiss chocolate. Switzerland shuddered at the hug, but instead of shoving the woman away like he usually would have done (also insert an assault rifle to the scene), he just kept staring at the box of Belgian chocolate in his hands.

"Well..." Switzerland said reluctantly and tried to make himself say something. Now Finland was sure Switzerland was blushing for embarrassment. "...Thanks..." he finally mumbled and Finland smiled back, having known from the very start Switzerland would like it. But it was always nice to hear it personally, especially in the case of Switzerland who wouldn't show much gratitude if he didn't like it a lot.

"Hey, Fin," Prussia asked, waving the plane ticket he had gotten from the envelope inside his tiny present. "What's this? And where the fuck is _Chengdu _anyway?"

"Chengdu?" China repeated and came closer, smiling. "Oh, I follow your thinking, Finland."

Prussia squinted. "What is it?"

"It's a panda park."

"Eep!" Prussia yelped and stared at plane ticket like it was the most precious thing he owned. After Gilbird of course. The bird was currently eating its own Christmas present on top of his head.

Austria went to Finland, picking up the last present their personal Santa had to offer and Finland folded the sack, sighing in content when the hubbub started to settle down and the nation scatter around the house again, doing their respective things. There was a cautious tap to his shoulder and Finland turned to face almost teary eyed Australia.

"I... I won't have any?" Australia squeaked quietly.

Finland turned properly around and gave him a reassuring smile. "You have one."

"I do?"

"Yeah. It just wasn't something I could pack," Finland explained and wiped the other's tears gently away with his thumb. "It's waiting for you at home. But you can see it now if you want."

"Yes!" Australia said immediately. "Yes please! How?"

"Here." Finland handed him an envelope he searched from the inside of his red coat. Australia eagerly took and opened it, pulling out two photographs. Australia's jaw fell.

"What did you get?" Thailand asked, leaning closer to see. He paled as New Zealand started laughing.

"I... I..." Australia stuttered. "I _love_ it..."

"Cool," Vietnam said, while patting Thailand's shoulder to calm him down. "What are you going to name him, Aussie?"

"_Her_," Australia corrected. "Can't you see it's a _she_? Anyway, I'm going to call her Fluffy."

"Fluffy?" Finland repeated doubtfully, frowning. "Are you sure that fits?"

"Okay, then Florence."

"Is that any better?" Taiwan wondered.

New Zealand shrugged. "If it's Australia naming it: for a spider, it is."

"Hey, you know how rare her species is?" Australia lectured. "And they're lethally poisonous too, so you have to show them some respect."

"Is calling something Fluffy your idea of respect?"

"Talking of respect," Austria put in. "Finland. Are you mocking me?"

"Of course not," Finland defended. "I just thought you needed one."

"I agree," Prussia and Hungary said at the same time, making the aristocrat blush, his hand squishing the GPS.

"But... This is just–" he started, before yet one person interrupted.

"Calm down, comrade Austria!" Russia patted Austria's shoulder with his new pinkish, warm mittens. "We can sit down with some nice vodka and discuss ballet."

Everyone who had been at Finland's house when the quest had begun all but calmed down, and a silence spread across the room, much to the confusion of everyone else.

"Aa-ah haha~!" England laughed nervously, sounding phony. "B-beer time, everyone! Alcohol to everyone, what do you say?"

"Good idea," Germany said. "Come on, Austria." He grabbed the other with him and dragged him away. "I think you need some more Glühwein, don't you think."

Switzerland frowned at that.

"You're so boring," Russia pouted.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"You shut up!" Turkey bellowed and pointed Greece with his finger. "No freaking way you're going to bring that rag near my Cypros!"

Greece frowned, holding the cat decorated fleece blanket in his arms. "They're still cold. And this is brand new. It's not a rag."

"It is. Finland has plenty of those things in his closets, no need to use _that_." The two were walking to upstairs to get the both Cypruses who were currently occupying a cornter of the guest room with their Christmas presents and some warm blankets. Turkey continued. "And besides, you already covered them both with who knows how many blankets."

"You're just jealous after having a–"

"Shut up!" Turkey shouted again, before the whole world heard what he had had for a present. "Wanna fight, huh?"

Egypt walked silently after them, listening the never-ending argument between the two. The only ones who argued about the Cyprus problem more than the two, were the Cypruses themselves. Actually, the problem was also one of the few things where Turkey and Greece sometimes agreed, usually when they got tired of the Cypruses arguing. Other times, Egypt wouldn't have cared to bug into it, but now it was Christmas and the two were ruining his mood. Besides, Christmas itself looked a bit sad with them. When it was going to jump away from Egypt's shoulder to stop the two from arguing, he stopped it silently, to Christmas' bewilderment. But Egypt knew the two better than it did. And he knew just what to do.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

By the time Turkey and Greece had disappeared to one of the rooms upstairs and Egypt to another, Christmas hopped back to the living room over the wrapping papers of someone's present. By the couch, Prussia, England, Austria and Germany were making the most of the alcohol that had been dragged to the house, mostly by France or Cuba. Austria was taking it easy compared to the other three though.

England hiccupped loudly and let down his bottle for a while.

"Face it already, you just suck at drinking, 'kay?" Prussia told him. "Couldn't hold your liquor back in the swashbuckling days, can't hold your liquor now, can't hold it tomorrow."

England snorted. "What about you then? I bet even _that–_" he pointed unsteadily– "could drink you under the table."

Germany smiled. "Why don't we try?"

"Yeah!" Prussia waved to Christmas. "Hey little one! Come here. Can you hold your drink?"

"Hey, whoa!" Finland took objection but Christmas was already hopping towards the couch were the three were slouching. It turned to look at Finland with a face that very clearly said "nyanyanyah!"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Greece and Turkey, still arguing, were coming down the stairs now. The two Cypruses had been warmed up, fed, and been given their presents. They had promptly started to play together, much to the adults' bewilderment. The fact the two were actually getting along also just as promptly evolved into Turkey and Greece shouting abuse sprinkled with accusations of brainwashing at each other as they made their way down the stairs to rejoin the party, preferably at opposite ends of the house from each other.

"What did you do, kidnap him into some shady government lab and– wait, no way your government could afford something like that." Turkey frowned. "You've finally resorted to drugging my kid's food, haven't you."

"Why would I need to do that, he does the dopy absent look well enough on his own," Greece shot back. "I'm only worried what his presence does to Cyprus's intellectual development."

"Say that to my face!"

They stopped halfway down the staircase.

"I'm only worried–"

"Listen, you lil–"

They fell silent, eyes widened in shock and staring at each other. Something green rained steadily down around them. Above them, leaning on the banister upstairs, Egypt smirked.

"Egypt... you..." Greece began, shaking. Turkey was speechless.

The staircase around them was green with mistletoe. Egypt had obtained a good armful from Finland's bedroom, there courtesy of France, and had just finished raining leafy doom on them from above. Two had landed on Greece's shoulder; one had got stuck on Turkey's hair. They were both blushing and so was Seychelles, who had happened to see the scene from downstairs.

"There's at least thirty of them," Egypt said peacefully. "Get to it."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

England cradled the last bottle and drooled on his shirt, mumbling something that sounded bad tempered. Germany was asleep against his shoulder, giving little high-pitched snorts every now and then.

Prussia was still sitting up, but swaying severely. He grabbed the table to keep still and raised his unstable finger to point at the little creature in front of him. "Wha~ ch… Wha a fuchk is tha thin…"

Poland appeared from behind the table and petted Christmas tenderly. The creature didn't look at all like it had just drunk down three nations. "It's Christmas, duh."

"Bullschidt." Prussia snorted, still pointing at Christmas. "An' sstay schtil, all six'a ya."

Lithuania scooped Christmas up and held it at an arm's length, attempting a scolding expression. "That wasn't very nice of you, Christmas."

"Thasschrite!"

"You shut up", Hungary snapped, slapping Prussia on the back of his head. "Serves you right."

"Way ta go, Christmas!" Denmark cheered, passing by on his way back from the kitchen. "Also Prussia, thass so lame."

"Whaeaa?" Prussia drawled. He grabbed a fork from the table and tried to point it at Denmark. "Ya'wanna fighten mich, Liebling? Fuchken' bring es, ya−"

The world never found out what exactly Denmark was, because at that moment Hungary decided it was time for Prussia to take a nice long nap. She voiced her opinion with a frying pan.

Lithuania was confused. "Isn't this thing supposed to object to violence?" he wondered, stroking Christmas and looking between the happily purring critter and a now very much unconscious Prussia.

Hungary smiled. "That was just a friendly slap."

"A friendly slap my ass," Poland breathed.

"It's drunk," Finland mumbled quietly behind them and sighed, shaking his head with a hand on his forehead.

Poland didn't hear Finland. He filched the half-empty bottle from England, who had finally fallen asleep, grabbed Lithuania and by extension Christmas, and wandered off to give the last of what was some truly exquisite brandy a proper burial.

France passed the three by the door and immediately saw something interesting sleeping on the couch. "Hmm~?" he slipped past Prussia and crouched down to grab England to his arms. "Belgium, dear," he called, softness in his voice. "You have any of that chocolate of yours left?"

Belgium raised her head. "Yes, in the fridge. Why do you... oh..."

France purred. "I'll borrow it a little. Could you bring it? My hands are full."

"O... okay," Belgium answered, blushing and bustled into the kitchen to fetch the chocolate.

"France," Finland warned. "No doing depraved things to unconscious people in my house."

"Of course not, mon cher," France answered, carrying England away. "I shall _gently_ wake him up. He's more fun when he's awake anyway."

Finland sighed, but France was already on his way upstairs and didn't hear him. He stepped over Turkey and Greece in the staircase and went straight for the bedroom. At the door he stopped, surprised to see Belarus glaring at them from further down the corridor. France gave her an inviting wink and worked the bedroom door open. He could already hear Belgium's footsteps in the stairs.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The house was starting to grow more and more silent. It was no surprise: it was late and all the nations were tired from either their adventures in the ice castle and trip with flying reindeer, or from the hustle of the preparations, or both. Some nations had retreated to one of the less used rooms in the house to watch a movie, though Canada had emerged a while ago to get snacks and reported that almost everyone there had fallen asleep before the movie ended. Many others were in their respective corners talking quietly or already asleep.

Finland sat on the windowsill of the living room. Switzerland had drifted off in the middle of their increasingly technical discussion of guns and was using his shoulder as a pillow. Liechtenstein sat on the floor and utilised his leg for the same purpose. Finland knew he'd be yelled at about these facts when Switzerland woke up, but if he moved it would probably happen right now, so he stayed put and sipped his glögg slowly, trying to make it last as long as possible since he couldn't go to get more.

The German brothers were sleeping on the couch with Italy: Germany sitting in the middle, leaning his head back and the others cuddled on both sides, each a head on Germany's thigh. Austria was asleep beside them in the armchair, Hungary in his lap. The only person closeby who still resisted the alluring call of soft furniture and remained awake was Netherlands, who was sitting on the floor, leaning on the coffee table, eating liqueur chocolate and quietly reading a book.

Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain and Romano were sleeping on the blankets by the fireplace, fallen asleep where they sat after their last game of cards. Last Finland had heard, Turkey and Greece were sleeping in the stairs, France and England were in his bedroom, though according to some sources not alone, and Sweden had just went with Iceland to tuck all the younger nations – Sealand, Cypruses and Wy – to bed at Finland's guest room. Awake in the room with Finland and Netherlands was only Norway, sitting on a chair by the door and nibbling on a piece of their gingerbread city, deep in his own thoughts.

The rest of the nations Finland had seen only briefly after giving out the presents. America had come to the living room at some point but he, Korea, Japan and Denmark had gone to play video games and Finland hadn't seem them after that. Somewhere in his mind he was quite sure, however, that most of the house was already sleeping. Finland didn't mind. His own eyes were heavy too, ready to close if he let his guard down. He had himself had quite a Christmas this year and the adrenaline buzz that had kept him moving despite his lack of sleep recently was slowly wearing off. But in the end he had had a wonderful Christmas, so he felt like he had earned a good rest this year.

Suddenly Finland saw Christmas running through the room. _At least someone has energy left, _he thought and followed as the little creature disappeared through the door. He knew that as long as there was someone awake in the house, the little, white personification wouldn't sleep and Finland doubted it would even after that. It probably was going to watch everyone's sleep and be there to greet the first one to wake up in the morning. Or day rather, Finland didn't think anyone of them was going to wake up early on Christmas Day.

Yes, Christmas Day. There was still another day of celebrations to come for them together. With that thought, Finland closed his eyes and drifted into sleep, resting his head against Switzerland's hair.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Christmas skipped away to the stairs where there was still plenty of free mistletoe branches lying around, although many nations had taken some for their own use during the night. Christmas took a branch in its mouth and ran back to where it had come from, making absolutely no sound since so many of the nations who had made this party for its sake were sound asleep. Its long tail following behind it and when Christmas stopped to the front door the end hair fluff threatened to hit its head, but Christmas managed to dodge it. It sat in front of the main door, flicking its tail, annoyed as it stared at the door that blocked its way out.

Christmas was just contemplating going back to the living room to nudge Norway when lone footsteps stopped behind it for a moment and then came closer. Christmas turned around to see Estonia quircking a questioning eyebrow at it. Without a word, because there was no need for such with Christmas looking up at him with pleading bright eyes, Estonia opened the door to let Christmas out. It gave him a thankful look and then flicked its tail between the door and the nation. Getting the hint, Estonia sat down and stayed by the door, waiting for the little creature to come back.

Christmas disappeared outside, but it only needed to go as far as the end of the veranda to find what it was looking for. General Winter was sitting on the stairs, staring at the cloudless night sky. Christmas didn't seem to be bothered at all by the minus twenty degrees that got progressively worse the closer to the General it got. General Winter noticed Christmas only when it hopped on his leg, startling the old man from his thoughts when it did. Christmas climbed up to the General's shoulder, putting the mistletoe branch behind his ear. Then it put its forepaws to his cheek and gave him a soft, soundless peck.

General Winter blushed.

* * *

A/N: Hello, again after a whole year (we are terribly sorry this happened). Next about this chapter:

Denmark, Finland and Norway under the mistletoe: This is a reference to The Julekalender (Finnish: the Joulukalenteri), a sketch/parody Christmas calender tv-show originally aired in Denmark in 1991. Norwegians made their own version in 1994 and Finns in 1997.

The Christmas present: Last year when we planned this chapter we produced a poll, asking what would people think the nations should have for presents. Thank you for all the responses: we considered every option, even if yours didn't end up in this chapter. A few of these really made us laugh, thank you for that as well.

Prussia drunken speech: It is a mix of English and German: more towards the end + the drunken babbling. If you don't speak german or understand a bit how the language works, it might be hard to understand, but as Prussia is drunk, I don't think it's vital to get everything he says, so I'm not going to translate it.

Switzerland and Finland in the end: Shigure, this is for you: Merry Merry Christmas to Switzerland

And so, about the great delay (believe me or not, this is what happened):

I had a huge stress of doing the chapter in time with school work, regular work and our own Christmas preparations. This caused and the difficulty of writing this chapter caused a writers block for me before I got this chapter done and I didn't touch any of my stories for a month. I continued at the end of January and wrote this chapter (14 pages in microsoft word) and showed it to our co-author. She thoroughly dissed it and so I had to redo it. It was February by that time. I got the chapter done and this time the co-author accepted it nd it was her turn to write. I waited and regularly hurried her to do something, but let her take her time. In May I finally snapped: she hadn't done a thing. Because it felt stupid to post the end of an Advent calender in summer, we decided that we'll send this in the next Christmas. Our beta-reader said okay and so here we are: finally, after a year of wait.

That's the story. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, because it was very very hard to write: there's no climax in chapter so the structure was hard to grasp.

.

To the beta-reader, CresentLilly: Thank you for all the work you did and how you did your job perfectly in time every time.

To the co-author, BlackRabbit: Thank you for wonderful ideas and, despite the lateness, how you never gave up.

To you dear reader and especially the reviewers: Thank you for all your support and how you kept me writing to the end.

Yours,

Treyen


	25. Special chapter - Deleted scenes

Merry Christmas 2012! Please enjoy some scenes that we planned, but couldn't fit into the storyline.

* * *

**Deleted Scenes**

__.

_Probably somewhere during the 16__th__ chapter_

"Making Christmas, making Christmas~–"

"Shut up, Korea!"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Saving Christmas, saving Christmas~–"

"Shut up, America!"

.

_The 22__nd __chapter, during the time the Rescue team sits in the forest wondering what to do_

Suddenly Finland seemed to remember something. "Does someone have a working cellphone?"

Germany raised his eyebrows. No one could really come to their help on time even if they contacted them. "Here," he said, giving the phone anyway.

"Thank you," Finland answered, taking the device. "Excuse me, I'll make an important phone call."

They all waited, confused, but with interest when Finland dialled a number and waited for an answer. Their eager wait didn't pay off when someone finally seemed to pick up, because Finland blurted his answer out with very irritated Finnish.

"Jorma," he growled, letting the 'r' roll on his tongue. "Meillä on puhuttavaa..."*

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_The 23__rd__ chapter, during the last preparation for Christmas_

Sweden helped Finland to feed his dog by keeping some stuff out of his way while he searched Hanatamago's special Christmas food from the closet. It seemed Ukraine had shoved all the dog food pretty far back into the cabinet with her team.

"I still can't believ'," Sweden said, breaking the continual huffing from Finland's direction. "Ya left Hana 'lone without food."

Finland straightened in surprise, hitting his head against shelves. "Ouch... eh, what?" he asked, massaging his head. "But I did leave him food. A five days share one too."

It was Sweden's turn to look surprised. "Bu' when I first cam', i' was jes three days since ya left an'... ther' was none left."

Finland started to defend himself. "Yes, but–" he stopped awkwardly and they shared a moment of silence. Then both of them turned to look at the white dog sitting behind them, looking innocent. Sweden frowned and Finland slapped a palm to his face.

"Hana... You'll get fat if you eat like that..."

Hanatamago barked, informing them that she was hungry and they should hurry it up.

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_The 23__rd__ chapter, during the last preparation for Christmas_

Finland stomped down the stairs. "Switzerland! Where's my rifle!"

Switzerland raised his eyebrows. "By the entrance. Beside the umbrella under the jackets."

"Great." Finland continued his way past the confused Swiss, anger clear in his eyes. "Russia! _Russia!_ Drag yourself here, you perverted pain in the ass! You hear me, Russia?! That means now!"

"What happened?" Liechtenstein asked Norway who was leaning against the railing of the stairs, careful not to ruin Japan's flowers..

"He listen'd to his phone messages," the Nordic answered simply.

"Figures..." Turkey said, rolling his eyes.

"Shouldn't we stop him?" Liechtenstein wondered aloud.

"Tha's already taken care of," Norway answered and, as if to mark his words, a white ball of fluff spurted past them all and after Finland.

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_The 24__th__ chapter, during the time the nations start eating_

Christmas bristled happily and nibbled on the lamb.

Egypt and Australia looked at it for a while and then turned their questioning eyes to Iceland.

Iceland snorted. "Okay, _okay_…"

.

_The 24__th__ chapter, the Christmas present scene_

France stared at his present and then stomped back to Finland. "Where did you get this?" he demanded, holding the wine carefully in his hands when shoving it towards the Nordic. "I... I didn't... it's the only one I never found from your shops. The last one had been booked earlier."

"Of course you didn't find any. I was the one who booked it," Finland explained. "That stuff is popular you know. I booked some before it ran out. For you."

"For... me?" France repeated. "But... but how could you–?"

"I told you," Finland stopped him gently, but with a victorious tone in his voice. "I know exactly what everyone wants for Christmas."

France straightened. "You're dangerous, Finland."

Finland smiled. "Especially at Christmas."

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_The 24__th__ chapter, after the Christmas present scene_

Russia glanced at the window to the yard where all the snow lanterns made by Latvia and Sealand were peacefully burning. Russia, however, looked a bit scared.

"Um... comrade Finland?" he called, coming closer to said nation.

"Yes, Russia?" Finland asked and then added in self defense. "I won't become one with you."

"Pity. But it's not that." Russia shook his head. "You have any idea, why the General keeps looking at me all the time?" he asked and glanced at the window, where they could see General Winter just before the old man hid behind the window frame. He didn't seem to notice he had already been seen. Then their sight of the outdoors was disturbed by Italy who was escaping Germany who kept telling Italy he couldn't wear only his underwear when visiting someone, _even _if they were brand new and _Armani_, meaning _expensive_.

"He acts like a school girl with a crush," Japan analysed General Winter's behavior before turning away from the scene that was offending his sense of conventionality.

"I... I have no idea," Finland answered after hesitating for a second. "But Russia, do you like your present this year?"

Russia nodded, smiling and raising his mitten-covered hands. He insisted to keep them on even while inside. "Yes. They're very comfy and keep me warm. Thank you, comrade~."

"You're welcome." Finland smiled as well and Russia left to find someone to hug.

"You know, don't you?" Cuba said between sipping his drink. "About the General."

Finland fidgeted slightly and then nodded. "Yes, of course I do. He wanted to find out if Russia liked his mittens."

"Why?" Ukraine asked, baffled.

Finland shrugged. "General made them."

.

_The 24__th__ chapter, after the Christmas present scene, before the drinking scene_

Prussia hauled the box of wines in his arms towards the living room where they had agreed to make their little drinking corner. Austria was a few steps behind him with another box. The latter watched in carefully hidden interest how the other man was humming to himself, probably thinking all the precious drinks he was soon going to have. Austria didn't have intentions of getting drunk like the other, but he wasn't going to leave all the wine and brandy to the three bottomless alcohol wells. When they entered the living room, Austria watched out for the mistletoe above the door.

"Look West!" Prussia shouted across the room louder than necessary. "Ya think this is enough?"

"More than enough," Germany answered and smiled.

"You have any whisky there?" England asked. "That'd make a nice shot with these." He raised a couple of bottles from Austria's box.

"I don't think there is," Austria said and turned. "I'll go see if there is some in the cellar."

"Yeah, we'll drink all the stuff and then dance through the night on the table!" Prussia laughed cynically, knowing the Austrian would never do that, or at least wouldn't admit it afterwards. "Ya can dance, prissy? Like this!" Before Austria could react, Prussia had him in a firm grip and seemed to attemp to waltz. With Austria struggling to get away, it ended up with both of the almost falling. Austria saved them by grabbing the doorframe.

"You're already drunk," he accused, frowning.

"So are you," Prussia shot back, grinning and snickered. Then he noticed Austria wasn't paying any attention to him anymore, but gazing upwards. Prussia followed his gaze and then quickly lowered it, suddenly a fair amount more sober than just a moment ago.

Austria lowered his gaze from the mistletoe as well and met Prussia's red eyes with firm a gaze. Prussia's cheeks turned slightly red when they continued to gaze into each other's eyes. Then Austria's expression changed and Prussia blushed properly.

"Maybe I truly am drunk," Austria said playfully, smiling.

* * *

A/N: *translations: "Jorma. Meillä on puhuttavaa..." = "Jorma. We got to talk." (Approximately.) This is a very old scene we liked, but had to abandon. If someone gets the joke in this, I'm going to applaud.

Thank you Talon and Naru for proofreading.

Merry Christmas!


End file.
